fihn 


I 

• 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


AUTOGRAPHS 


FOB 


FREEDOM 


BOSTON: 
JOHN   P.   JEWETT   AND   COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,  OHIO: 

JEWETT, PROCTOR,  AND  WORTHINGTON 
LONDON :   LOW  AND  COMPANY. 

1853. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1853,  by 

JOHN  P.  JEWETT  &  COMPANY, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of 


ALLEN    AND    FARNHAM,    PRINTERS. 
CAMBRIDGE. 


PREFACE. 


THERE  is,  perhaps,  little  need  of  detaining  the  kind 
reader,  even  for  one  moment,  in  this  the  vestibule  of  our 
Temple  of  Liberty,  to  state  the  motives  and  reasons  for 
the  publication  of  this  collection  of  Anti-slavery  testimo- 
nies. 

The  good  cause  to  which  the  volume  is  devoted ;  — 
the  influence  which  must  ever  be  exerted  by  persons  of 
exalted  character,  and  high  mental  endowments ;  —  the 
fact  that  society  is  slow  to  accept  any  cause  that  has  not 
the  baptism  of  the  acknowledged  noble  and  good ;  —  the 
happiness  arising  from  making  any  exertion  to  amelio- 
rate the  condition  of  the  injured  race  amongst  us,  will,  at 
once,  suggest  reasons  and  motives  for  sending  forth  this 
offering,  which,  while  it  shall  prove  acceptable  as  a  GIFT 
BOOK,  may  help  to  swell  the  tide  of  that  sentiment  that, 
by  the  Divine  blessing,  will  sweep  away  from  this  other- 
wise happy  land,  the  great  sin  of  SLAVERY. 

Should  this  publication  be  instrumental  in  casting  one 
ray  of  hope  on  the  heart  of  one  poor  slave,  or  should  it 
draw  the  attention  of  one  person,  hitherto  uninterested, 


V  PREFACE. 

to  the  deep  wrongs  of  the  bondman,  or  cause  one  sincere 
and  earnest  effort  to  promote  emancipation,  we  believe 
that  the  kind  contributors,  who  have  generously  respon- 
ded to  our  call,  not  less  than  the  members  of  our  Society, 
^will  feel  themselves  gratified  and  compensated. 

The  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  "AUTOGRAPHS  FOR 
FREEDOM,"  will  be  devoted  to  the  dissemination  of 
light  and  truth  on  the  subject  of  slavery  throughout  the 
country. 

On  behalf  of  "  The  Rochester  Ladies'  Anti-Slavery 
-Society" 

JULIA  GRIFFITHS,  Secretary. 

ROCHESTER,  1852. 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Be  up  and  doing, Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward.  I 

Caste  and  Christ, Mrs.  H.  E.  B.  Stowe.  4 

Letter  from  the  Earl  of  Carlisle  to  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe,      ...  7 

Momma  Charlotte, Mrs.  C.  M.  Kirkland.  13 

A  Name, Hon.  Horace  Mann.  18 

Letter  from  Joseph  Sturge, 19 

Slavery  and  Polygamy, R.  Hildreth.  20 

The  Way, John  G.  Whittier.  23 

The  Slave  and  Slave-Owner, Miss  Sedgwick.  24 

Letter  from  the  Bishop  of  Oxford, 28 

Hide  the  Outcasts, Rev.  William  Goodell.  29 

Can  Slaves  rightfully  resist  and  fight  ?     Rev.  Geo.  W.  Perkins.  33 

Death  in  Life, Ebenezer  Button.  41 

True  Reform, Mrs.  C.  W.  H.  Datt.  43 

How  Long  ? J.M.  Whitfield.  46 

Letter  from  Wilson  Armistead, 55 

Impromptu  Stanzas, J.  M.  Eells.  59 

John  Murray  of  Glasgow,       ....       James  M'  Cune  Smith.  62 

Power  of  American  Example, Lewis  Tappan.  68 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

The  Gospel  as  a  Remedy  for  Slavery,     .     .     .  Lewis  Tappan.    71 

Letter  from  Rev.  C.  G.  Finney, 74 

The  Slave's  Prayer, Mss  C.  E.  Beecker.    75 

The  Struggle, Hon.  Charles  Sumner.     77 

Work  and  Wait, Horace  Gredey.     78 

The  Great  Emancipation, Gerrit  Smith.    81 

Ode, Rev.  John  Pierpont.     82 

Passages  in  the  Life  of  a  Slave  Woman,  .     .     .  Annie  Parker.     85 

Story  Telling, «          «          95 

The  Man-Owner, Rev.  E.  Buckingham.     99 

Damascus  in  1851, Rev.  F.  W.  Holland.  104 

Religious,'  Moral,  and  Political  Duties,    Lindley  Murray  Moore.  114 
Why  Slavery  is  in  the  Constitution,   .     .     .     James  G.  Birney.  116 

The  Two  Altars, Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe.  127 

Outline  of  a  Man, Rev.  R.  R.  Raymond.  148 

The  Heroic  Slave  Woman, Rev.  S.  J.  May.  161 

Kossuth, John  Thomas.  166 

The  Heroic  Slave, Frederick  Douglass.  174 

A  Plea  for  Free  Speech, Prof.  J.  H.  Raymond.  240 

Placido, Prof.  W.  G.  Allen.  256 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


BE   UP  AND  DOING, 


CAN  nothing  be  done  for  Freedom?  Yes, 
much  can  be  done.  Everything  can  be  done. 
Slavery  can  be  confined  within  its  present  bounds; 
It  can  be  meliorated.  It  can  be,  and  it  must  be 
abolished.  The  task  is  as  simple  as  its  perform- 
ance would  be  beneficent  and  as  its  rewards 
would  be  glorious.  It  requires  only  that  we  fol- 
low this  plain  rule  of  conduct  and  course  of 
activity,  namely,  to  do,  everywhere,  and  on  every 
occasion  what  we  can,  and  not  to  neglect  nor 
refuse  to  do  what  we  can  at  any  time,  because  at 
that  precise  time  and  on  that  particular  occasion 
we  cannot  do  more.  Circumstances  define  possi- 
bilities. When  we  have  done  our  best  to  shape 
them  and  to  make  them  propitious,  we  may  rest 
satisfied  that  superior  wisdom  has,  nevertheless,, 
1 


4>  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

controlled  them  and  us,  and  -that  it  will  be  satis- 
fied with  us  if  we  do  all  the  good  that  shall  then 
be  found  possible. 

But  we  can,  and  we  must  begin  deeper  and 
lower  than  the  composition  and  combination  of 
factions.  Wherein  do  the  security  and  strength 
of  slavery  consist  ?  You  answer,  in  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  constitutions  and 
laws  of  the  slave-holding  States.  Not  at  all.  It 
is  in  the  erroneous  sentiments  of  the  American 
people.  Constitutions  and  laws  can  no  more  rise 
above  the  virtue  of  the  people  than  the  limped 
stream  can  climb  above  its  native  spring.  Incul- 
cate the  love  of  freedom  and  the  sacredness  of  the 
rights  of  man  under  the  paternal  roof.  See  to  it, 
that  they  are  taught  in  the  schools  and  in  the 
churches.  Reform  your  own  codes  and  expur- 
gate the  vestiges  of  slavery.  Reform  your  own 
manners  and  customs  and  rise  above  the  preju- 
dices of  caste.  Receive  the  fugitive  who  lays  his 
weary  limbs  at  your  door,  and  defend  him  as  you 
wtmld  your  household  gods,  for  he,  not  they,  has 
power  to  bring  down  blessings  on  your  hearth. 
Correct  your  error  that  slavery  has  any  constitu- 
tional guarantee  that  may  not  be  released,  and 
that  ought  not  to  be  relinquished.  Say  to  slavery, 
when  it  shows  its  bond  and  demands  its  pound  of 
flesh,  that  if  it  draws  one  drop  of  blood  its  life 
shall  pay  the  forfeit.  Inculcate  that  the  free 
States  can  exercise  the  rights  of  hospitality  and 
humanity,  that  Congress  knows  no  finality  and 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM.  3 

can  debate,  that  Congress  can  at  least  mediate 
with  the  slave-holding  States,  that  at  least  future 
generations  may  be  bought  and  given  up  to  free- 
dom. Do  all  this,  and  inculcate  all  this,  in  the 
spirit  of  moderation  and  benevolence,  and  not  of 
retaliation  and  fanaticism,  and  you  will  ultimately 
bring  the  parties  of  this  country  into  a  common 
condemnation  and  even  the  slave-holding  States 
themselves  into  a  renunciation  of  slavery,  which  is 
not  less  necessary  for  them  than  for  the  common 
security  and  welfare.  Whenever  the  public  mind 
shall  be  prepared,  and  the  public  conscience  shall 
demand  the  abolition  of  slavery  the  way  to  do  it 
will  open  before  us,  and  then  mankind  will  be 
surprised  at  the  ease  with  which  the  greatest  of 
social  and  political  evils  can  be  removed. 


4  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


CASTE  AND   CHRIST. 


HE  is  not  ashamed  to  call  them  brethren. 

Ho  !  thou  dark  and  weary  stranger 
From  the  tropic's  palmy  strand, 

Bowed  with  toil,  with  mind  benighted, 
What  wouldst  thou  upon  our  land  ? 

Am  I  not,  O  man,  thy  brother  ? 

Spake  the  stranger  patiently, 
All  that  makes  thee,  man,  immortal, 

Tell  me,  dwells  it  not  in  me  ? 

I,  like  thee,  have  joy,  have  sorrow, 
I,  like  thee,  have  love  and  fear, 

I,  like  thee,  have  hopes  and  longings 
Far  beyond  this  earthly  sphere. 

Thou  art  happy,  —  I  am  sorrowing, 
Thou  art  rich,  and  I  am  poor ; 

In  the  name  of  our  one  Father 
Do  not  spurn  me  from  your  door. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


Thus  the  dark  one  spake,  imploring, 

To  each  siranger  passing  nigh, 
But  each  child  and  man  and  woman, 

Priest  and  Levite  passed  him  by. 

Spurned  of  men,  —  despised,  rejected, 

Spurned  from  school  and  church  and  hall, 

Spurned  from  business  and  from  pleasure, 
Sad  he  stood,  apart  from  all. 

Then  I  saw  a  form  all  glorious, 

Spotless  as  the  dazzling  light, 
As  He  passed,  men  veiled  their  faces, 

And  the  earth,  as  heaven,  grew  bright. 

Spake  he  to  the  dusky  stranger, 
Awe-struck  there  on  bended  knee, 

Rise  !  for  /  have  called  thee  brother, 
I  am  not  ashamed  of  thee. 

When  I  wedded  mortal  nature 
To  my  Godhead  and  my  throne, 

Then  I  made  all  mankind  sacred, 
Sealed  all  human  for  mine  own. 

By  Myself,  the  Lord  of  ages, 

I  have  sworn  to  right  the  wrong, 

I  have  pledged  my  word,  unbroken, 
For  the  weak  against  the  strong. 
1* 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

And  upon  my  gospel  banner 
I  have  blazed  in  light  the  sign, 

He  who  scorns  his  lowliest  brother, 
Never  shall  have  hand  of  mine. 

Hear  the  word !  — who  fight  for  freedom ! 

Shout  it  in  the  battle's  van  ! 
Hope !  for  bleeding  human  nature ! 

Christ  the  God,  is  Christ  the  man  ! 


ANDOVER,  JULY  22,  1852. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


LETTER  FROM  THE  EARL  OF  CARLISLE  TO  THE 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


LONDON,  JULY  8,  1852. 
MADAM  :  — • 

I  should  be  very  sorry  indeed  to  refuse  any 
request  addressed  to  me  from  "the  Rochester 
Ladies'  Anti- Slavery  Association." 

At  the  same  time  I  really  should  feel  at  a  loss 
what  to  send,  but  as  I  am  on  the  point  of  sending 
off  a  letter  to  the  authoress  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin, 
I  venture  to  submit  a  copy  of  it  to  those  who  I 
feel  sure  must  be  fond  of  such  a  countrywoman. 
Your  very  faithful  Servant, 


LONDON,  JULY  8,  1852. 
MADAM  :  — 

^  I  have  allowed  some  time  to  elapse  before  I 
thanked  you  for  the  great  honor  and  kindness  you 
did  me  in  sending  to  me,  from  yourself,  a  copy  of 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  I  thought  it  due  to  the  sub- 


8  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

ject  of  which  I  perceived  that  it  treated,  not  to 
send  a  mere  acknowledgment,  as  I  confess  from 
a  motive  of  policy  I  am  apt  to  do,  upon  the  first 
arrival  of  the  book.  I  therefore  determined  to 
read,  before  I  wrote. 

Having  thus  read,  it  is  not  in  the  stiff  and  con- 
ventional form  of  compliment,  still  less  in  the 
technical  language  of  criticism,  that  I  am  about 
to  speak  of  your  work.  I  return  my  deep  and 
solemn  thanks  to  Almighty  God,  who  has  led 
and  enabled  you  to  write  such  a  book. 

I  do  feel,  indeed,  the  most  thorough  assurance 
that  in  His  good  providence  such  a  book  cannot 
.have  been  written  in  vain.  I  have  long  felt  that 
.slavery  is  by  far  the  topping  question  of  the  world 
and  age  we  live  in,  involving  all  that  is  most 
thrilling  in  heroism,  and  most  touching  in  distress, 
—  in  short,  the  real  epic  of  the  universe.  The 
self:interest  of  the  parties  most  nearly  concerned 
on  the  one  hand,  the  apathy  and  ignorance  of 
unconcerned  observers  on  the  other,  have  left  these 
august  pretensions  to  drop  very  much  out  of  sight, 
and  hence  my  rejoicing  that  a  writer  has  appeared 
who  will  be  read,  and  must  be  felt,  and  that  hap- 
pen what  may  to  the  transactions  of  slavery,  they 
will  no  longer  be  suppressed,  "carent  quia  vate 
sacra." 

I  trust  that  what  I  have  just  said  was  not 
required  to  show  the  entire  sympathy  I  entertain 
with  respect  to  the  main  truth  and  leading  scope 
of  your  high  argument,  but  we  live  in  a  world  only 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM,  \) 

too  apt  to  regard  the  accessories  and  accidents  of 
a  subject  above  its  real  and  vital  essence  ;  no  one 
can  know  so  well  as  you  how  much  the  external 
appearance  of  the  negro  detracts  from  the  romance 
and  sentimentality  which  undoubtedly  might 
attach  to  his  position  and  his  wrongs,  and  on  this 
account  it  does  seem  to  me  proportionately  im- 
portant that  you  should  have  brought  to  your 
portraiture  great  grace  of  style,  great  power  of 
language,  a  play  of  humor  which  relieves  and 
brightens  even  the  dark  depth  of  the  back-ground 
which  you  were  called  upon  to  reveal,  a  force  of 
pathos  which,  to  give  it  the  highest  praise,  does  not 
lay  behind  even  all  the  dread  reality,  and,  above  all, 
a  variety,  a  discrimination,  and  a  truth  in  the 
delineation  of  character,  which  even  to  my  own 
scanty  and  limited  experience  of  the  society  you 
describe  accredits  itself  instantaneously  and  irre- 
sistibly. Seldom,  indeed,  could  I  more  forcibly 
apply  the  line  of  a  very  favorite  poet,  — 

"  And  truths  divine  came  mended  from  that  tongue." 

I  have  been  told  that  in  an  English  periodical, 
the  quality  of  genius  has  been  denied  to  your 
book.  The  motives  which  must  have  guided  its 
composition  will  probably  have  made  you  su- 
premely indifferent  to  mere  criticism,  especially  to 
any  which  argues  so  much  obfuscation  both  of 
head  and  heart.  Your  work  has  genius  of  the 
highest  order,  and  it  is  the  lowest  of  its  merits. 


10          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

There  is  one  point  which,  in  face  of  all  that  your 
book  has  aimed  at  and  achieved,  I  think  of 
extremely  slight  importance,  but  which  I  will 
nevertheless  just  mention,  if  only  to  show  that  I 
have  not  been  bribed  into  this  fervor  of  admiration. 
I  think,  then,  that  whenever  you  speak  of  England 
and  her  institutions,  it  is  in  a  tone  which  fails  to 
do  them  fair  justice.  I  do  not  know  what  dis- 
tinct charges  you  think  could  be  established 
against  our  aristocracy  and  capitalists,  but  you 
generally  convey  the  impression  that  the  same 
oppressions  in  degree,  though  not  in  kind,  might 
be  brought  home  to  them  which  are  now  laid  to 
the  charge  of  Southern  slave-holders.  Exposed 
to  the  same  ordeal,  they  might  very  probably  not 
stand  the  test  better.  All  I  contend  for  is,  that 
the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed,  and 
the  institutions  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
make  the  parallel  wholly  inapplicable.  I  cannot 
but  suspect  that  your  view  has  been  in  many 
respects  derived  from  composers  of  fiction  and 
others  among  ourselves  who,  writing  with  distin- 
guished ability,  have  been  more  successful  in 
delineating  and  dissecting  the  morbid  features  of 
our  modern  society,  than  in  detecting  the  principle 
which  is  at  fault,  or  suggesting  the  appropriate 
remedy.  My  own  belief  is,  liable,  if  you  please, 
to  national  bias,  that  our  capitalists  are  very  much 
the  same  sort  of  persons  as  your  own  in  the 
Northern  States,  with  the  same  mixtures  and 
inequalities  of  motive  and  action.  With  respect 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          11 

to  our  aristocracy,  I  should  really  be  tempted  to 
say  that,  tried  by  their  conduct  on  the  question  of 
Free  Trade,  they  do  not  sustain  an  unfavorable 
comparison  with  your  uppermost  classes.  Allow 
me  to  add,  that  when  in  one  place  you  refer  to  those 
who  have  already  emancipated  their  slaves,  I  think 
a  case  more  directly  in  point  than  the  proceedings 
of  the  Hungarian  nobles  might  have  been  selected : 
such,  at  least,  I  feel  sure  would  have  been  the  case, 
if  the  passages  in  question  had  been  written  by 
one  who  certainly  was  keenly  alive  to  the  faults 
of  England,  but  who  did  justice  to  her  good  quali- 
ties and  deeds  with  a  heartiness  exceeding  that  of 
most  of  her  own  sons,  —  your  great  and  good  Dr. 
Channing. 

I  need  not  repeat  how  irrelevant,  after  all,  I  feel 
what  I  have  said  upon  this  head  to  be  to  the  main 
issues  involved  in  your  work ;  there  is  little  doubt, 
too,  that  as  a  nation  we  have  our  special  failings, 
and  one  of  them  probably  is  that  we  care  too  little 
about  what  other  nations  think  of  them. 

Nor  can  I  wish  my  countrymen  ever  to  forget 
that  their  own  past  history  should  prevent  them 
from  being  forward  in  casting  accusations  on  their 
transatlantic  brethren  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 
With  great  ignorance  of  its  actual  miseries  and 
horrors,  there  is  also  among  us  great  ignorance  of 
the  fearful  perplexities  and  difficulties  with  which 
its  solution  could  not  fail  to  be  attended.  I  feel, 
however,  that  there  is  a  considerable  difference 
between  reluctant  acquiescence  in  what  you  in- 


12          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

herit  from  the  past,  and  voluntary  fresh  enlarge- 
ments and  reinforcements  of  the  system.  For 
instance,  I  should  not  say  that  the  mode  in  which 
such  an  enactment  as  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  has 
been  considered  in  this  country  has  at  all  erred 
upon  the  side  of  overmuch  indignation. 

I  need  not  detain  you  longer:  I  began  my 
letter  with  returning  thanks  to  Almighty  God  f6r 
the  appearance  of  your  work,  and  I  offer  my 
humble  and  ardent  prayer  to  the  same  Supreme 
Source  that  it  may  have  a  marked  agency  in  hast- 
ening the  great  consummation,  which  I  should 
feel  it  a  practical  atheism  not  to  believe  must  be 
among  the  unfulfilled  purposes  of  the  Divine 
power  and  love. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  Madam, 

Your  sincere  admirer  and  well-wisher, 

CARLISLE. 

MRS.  BEECHER  STOWE. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


MOMMA  CHARLOTTE. 


"  SLAVERY  is  merely  an  idea!  "  said  Mr.  S ; 

"  the  slaves  are,  in  reality,  better  off  than  we  are,  if 
they  had  sense  enough  to  know  it.  They  are 
taken  care  of —  (they  must  be,  you  know,  because 
it  is  the  master's  interest  to  keep  them  in  good 
condition,  and  a  man  will  always  do  what  is  for 
his  interest).  They  get  rid  of  all  responsibility, — 
which  is  what  we  are  groaning  under ;  and  if  they 
were  only  let  alone,  they  would  be  happy  enough, 
—  happier  than  then*  masters,  I  dare  say." 

"  You  think  it,  then,  anything  but  kindness  to 
urge  their  emancipation  ?  " 

"  To  be  sure  I  do !  and  I  would  have  every  one 
that  teaches  them  to  be  discontented  hung  up 
without  judge  or  jury." 

"  You  seem  particularly  interested  for  the 
slave,  — " 

"  Interested !  I  would  have  every  one  of  them 
sent  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  if  I  could,  — 
or  into  'kingdom  come/  for  that  matter.  They 
are  the  curse  of  the  country ;  but  as  long  as  they 
are  property,  I  would  shoot  any  man  that  put  bad 
ideas  in  their  heads  or  that  interfered  with  my 
2 


14 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


management  of  them,  as  I  would  shoot  a  dog  that 
killed  my  sheep." 

"  But  do  they  never  get  what  you  call  '  bad 
ideas '  from  any  but  white  people  ?  " 

"  O,  there  is  no  knowing  where  they  get  them, 
—  but  they  are  full  of  'em.  No  matter  how  kind 
you  are  to  them,  they  are  never  satisfied ! " 

"  I  can  tell  you  where  they  get  some  of  then- 
ideas  of  slavery,  if  you  will  allow  me." 

"  Certainly,  —  I  am  always  glad  of  information." 

"  Well,  —  I  will  take  up  your  time  with  nothing 
but  actual  facts,  for  the  truth  of  which  I  will  be 
answerable.  In  a  Western  tour,  not  many  years 
since,  I  saw  one  day  a  young  lady,  fair  as  a  lily, 
and  with  a  sweet  expression  of  countenance,  walk- 
ing in  the  street  with  a  little  black  girl  whom  she 
held  by  the  hand.  The  little  girl  was  about  six 
years  old,  neatly  dressed  and  very  clean ;  and  on 
her  neck  she  had  a  little  gauze  shawl  that  some- 
body had  given  her,  the  border  of  which  was  com- 
posed of  the  figure  of  the  American  Eagle  many 
times  repeated,  each  impression  accompanied  by 
the  word  c  LIBERTY,'  woven  into  the  fabric. 

u  This  curious  decoration,  together  with  the 
wistful  look  of  the  child's  face,  and  the  benevolent 
air  of  the  young  lady,  with  whom  I  was  slightly 
acquainted,  led  me  to  ask  some  questions,  which 
were  answered  with  an  air  in  which  modesty  and 
sensibility  were  blended.  I  learned  that  the  young 
lady  had  undertaken  the  trying  task  of  accom- 
panying the  little  girl  through  the  place  —  which 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          15 

was  a  considerable  village  —  for  the  purpose  of 
collecting  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars,  with  which  to 
purchase  the  freedom  of  the  child. 

"  '  And  how,'  said  I,  '  did  you  become  interested 
in  the  poor  little  thing  ? ' 

" '  She  belongs  to  a  member  of  my  family,'  said 
Miss  C ,  with  a  blush ;  '  to  my  aunt,  Mrs.  Jones.' 

"  '  And  how  did  she  find  her  way  to  the  north  ? ' 

" '  Her  mother,  who  is  the  servant  of  my  aunt, 
got  leave  to  bring  Violet  along  with  her,  when  her 
mistress  came  here  for  the  summer.' 

" l  But  both  mother  and  child,  are  free  by  the 
mere  circumstance  of  being  brought  here,  — ' 

"  '  O,  but  Momma  Charlotte  promised  her  mis- 
tress that  she  would  not  leave  her,  nor  let  Violet 
do  so,  if  she  might  bring  the  child  with  her,  and 
beg  money  to  buy  her.  She  says  she  does  not 
care  for  freedom  for  herself.' 

"  I  could  not  do  less  than  go  with  the  good  girl 
for  awhile,  to  assist  a  little  in  her  labor  of  love, 
which  in  the  end,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  diffi- 
culty, was  finally  accomplished.  It  was  not  until 
after  this  that  I  became  acquainted  with  Momma 
Charlotte,  the  mother  of  Violet,  and  learned  a  few 
of  the  particulars  of  a  story  whicji.  had  made  her 
'  not  care  for  freedom.' 

"  Momma  Charlotte  was  the  mother  of  ten  chil- 
dren, —  six  daughters  and  four  sons.  Her  husband 
had  been  a  free  black,  —  a  carpenter,  able  to  keep 
a  comfortable  home  for  his  family,  hiring  his  wife 
of  her  master.  At  the  time  of  the  Southampton 


16          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

insurrection,  this  man  was  among  the  suspected, 
and,  on  suspicion,  not  proof,  he  was  taken  up,  — 
tried,  after  the  fashion  of  that  time,  and  hung,  with 
several  others,  —  all  between  sunset  and  sunrise  of 
a  single  day. 

•"  '  He  was  innocent,  —  he  had  had  no  hand  in 
the  matter,  as  God  is  my  judge ! '  said  poor  Mom- 
ma Charlotte. 

"  This  was  but  the  beginning  of  troubles.  A 
•sense  of  insecurity  made  the  sale  of  slaves  more 
vigorous  than  ever.  Charlotte's  children  were  sold, 
-one  by  one  —  no  two  together  —  the  boys  for  the 
sugar  country,  —  the  girls  for  — '  the  New  Orleans 
market,'  whence  they  were  dispersed,  she  never 
knew  where. 

"  '  All  gone ! '  she  said ;  '  where  I  could  never 
csee  'em  nor  hear  from  'em.  I  do  n't  even  know 
where  one  of  'em  is  ! ' 

"  '  And  Violet  ? ' 

"  l  O  yes,  —  I  mean  all  but  Violet.  She 's  all 
I  've  got  in  the  world,  and  I  want  to  keep  her.  I 
^begged  Missus  to  let  me  keep  jist  one !  and  she 
.said  if  I  could  get  any  body  to  buy  her  for  me,  I 
might  have  her,  —  for  you  know  I  could  n't  own 
/her  myself,  'cause  I  'm  a  slave.' 

"  '  But  you  are  no  longer  a  slave,  Momma  Char- 
lotte ;  your  mistress  by  bringing  you  here  volun- 
iarily  has  freed  you,  — ' 

"  i  Yes,  —  I  know,  —  but  I  promised,  you  see ! 
And  I  do  n't  care  to  be  free.  I  'm  old,  and  my 
children's  gone,  and  my  heart 's  broke.  I  ha'n't 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          17 

no  more  courage.  If  I  can  keep  Violet,  it  's  all  I 
expect,  My  mistress  is  good  enough  to  me,  —  I 
live  pretty  easy.' 

"  Such  was  Momma  Charlotte's  philosophy,  but 
her  face  told  through  what  sufferings  such  philoso- 
phy had  been  acquired.  A  fixed  grief  sat  on  her 
brow  ;  since  the  judicial  murder  of  her  husband 
she  had  never  been  known  to  laugh,  —  hardly  to 
smile.  Her  eyes  were  habitually  cast  on  the 
ground,  and  her  voice  seemed  always  on  the  brink 
of  tears.  She  was  what  you  call  '  dissatisfied]  I 
think,  Mr.  S  -  ." 

"  O,  you  have  selected  an  extreme  case  !  those 
things  very  seldom  happen."  (Seldom!)  "  After 
all,  you  see  the  poor  old  thing  knew  what  was 
right;  she  showed  the  right  spirit,  —  " 

"  Yes,  —  she,  —  but  her  owners  ?  " 

Here  Mr.  S  -  was  sure  he  saw  a  friend  at  a 
distance  to  whom  it  was  necessary  he  should 
speak  immediately  ;  so  he  darted  off,  and  I  lost 
the  benefit  of  his  defence  of  the  peculiarities  of  the 
peculiar  institution. 


2* 


18 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM, 


A   NAME, 


ON   BEING   ASKED   FOR   HIS   AUTOGRAPH. 


WHY  ask  a  Name  ?    Small  is  the  good  it  brings  ; 
Names  are  but  breath;    deeds,  DEEDS  alone  are 
Things. 


WEST  NEWTON,  OCT.  23,  1852. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


19 


TO  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


IN  compliance  with  the  request  that  I  would 
send  a  few  lines  for  insertion  in  "  The  Anti- 
Slavery  Autograph,"  I  may  say  that  I  cannot 
express  too  strongly  my  conviction  that,  if  there  be 
truth  in  Revelation,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian 
to  promote,  by  all  legitimate  means,  not  only  the 
universal  and  total,  but  the  immediate  abolition  of 
any  system  under  which  man  can  hold  property  in 
his  fellow  man.  Perhaps  few  of  those  who  take 
this  view  of  the  subject  are  sufficiently  careful  to 
avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  any  participation  in,  or 
encouragment  of  slavery,  by  refusing  to  use  the 
produce  of  the  unrequited  toil  of  the  slave.  Yet 
until  we  do  this,  I  think  we  have  little  right  to 
expect  the  Divine  blessing  upon  our  efforts  to 
promote  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  of  the  slave 
trade. 


20          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


SLAVERY  AND    POLYGAMY:    DOCTORS  OF 
DIVINITY  IN  A  DILEMMA. 


AN  argument  is  derived  from  the  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures in  favor  of  slave-holding,  very  plausible  and 
weighty  with  that  large  class  of  persons  so  poorly 
.gifted  with  hearts  as  to  find  it  difficult  to  discrim- 
inate between  the  letter  that  killeth  and  the  spirit 
that  maketh  alive.  The  Old  Testament  shows 
clearly  enough,  that  slave-holding  was  tolerated 
among  the  Jews ;  and  it  being  assumed  that  the 
system  of  Jewish  society,  or,  at  all  events,  that  the 
Mosaic  code  was  framed  after  a  Divine  model,  it 
is  alleged  to  be  at  least  supererogatory,  if  not 
actually  impious,  to  denounce  as  inconsistent 
with  Christianity  that  which  God  permitted  to  his 
chosen  and  selected  people.  Are  we  to  pretend  to 
be  better  and  wiser  than  Abraham  and  Moses, 
David  and  Solomon  ? 

A  recent  application  of  this  same  argument  can 
hardly  fail  to  operate  with  many,  as  what  the 
mathematicians  call  a  reductio  ad  absurdum;  a 
proof,  that  is,  of  the  falsity  of  a  proposition  as- 
sumed, by  exhibiting  its  operation  in  other  cases. 

The  famous  Mormon  doctrine  of  the  plurality 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          21 

of  wives,  now  at  length  openly  avowed  by  the 
heads  and  apostles  of  that  new  sect,  is  upheld  and 
justified  by  this  very  same  argument.  It  plainly 
appears  from  the  Old  Testament,  that  polygamy 
equally  with  slavery,  was  one  of  the  social  institu- 
tions of  the  Jews,  recognized  and  sanctioned  by 
their  laws.  And  borrowing  the  tone,  and  indeed 
the  very  words  of  our  pro-slavery  theologians,  — 
"  Do  you  pretend,"  asks  Orson  Hyde,  one  of  the 
Mormon  apostles,  addressing  himself  to  those  who 
question  this  new  privilege  of  the  saints,  —  "  Do 
you  pretend  to  set  yourselves  above  the  teaching 
of  God,  and  the  example  of  his  chosen  people  ?  " 

Nor  does  the  analogy  between  the  two  cases 
stop  here.  According  to  the  pro-slavery  biblical 
argument,  slave-holding  is  only  to  be  justified  in 
Christian  slave-holders,  who,  in  holding  slaves, 
have  in  view  not  only  selfish  benefit  or  advan- 
tage, but  the  good  of  the  slaves,  (who  are  not  able 
to  take  care  of  themselves,)  and  the  glory  of  God. 
According  to  the  Mormon  biblical  argument, 
polygamy  is  to  be  allowed  only  to  the  saints ;  and 
that,  not  for  any  sensual  gratification,  but  only 
for  the  benefit  of  the  women,  (who,  according  to 
the  Mormon  doctrine,  cannot  get  to  heaven  with- 
out some  holy  husband  to  introduce  them,)  and 
for  the  raising  up  of  a  righteous  seed  to  God's 
glory. 

Their  favorite  biblical  argument,  urged  with 
such  a  tone  of  triumph  and  self-satisfaction  in  all 
the  southern  presbyteries  and  consociations,  and 


22          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

in  some  northern  ones,  being  thus  newly  applied 
by  the  Mormons,  our  pro-slavery  friends  are  placed 
in  a  somewhat  delicate  dilemma.  For  they  must 
either  abandon  as  invalid  their  dogma  of  slave- 
holding  derived  from  Jewish  practices,  or,  if  they 
still  hold  on  to  the  argument,  and  maintain  its 
force,  they  must  prepare  -  to  extend  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship  to  Brigham  Young  and  his  five  and 
forty  wives.  It  is,  indeed,  very  natural,  in  fact 
inevitable,  that  slavery  and  polygamy,  avowed  or 
disavowed,  should  go  together ;  nor  does  any  good 
reason  appear  why  those  who  find  justification  for 
the  one  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures  should  hesitate 
about  accepting  the  other. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


THE  WAY. 


BELIEVE  me  still,  as  I  have  ever  been, 

The  steadfast  lover  of  my  fellow  men ; 

My  weakness, — love  of  holy  Liberty! 

My  crime,  —  the  wish  that  all  mankind  were  free ! 

Free,  not  by  blood  ;  redeemed,  but  not  by  crime ; 

Each  fetter  broken,  but  in  God's  good  time ! 


AMESBURY,  10th  MO.  16,  1852. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


THE   SLAVE   AND   SLAVE-OWNER 


"  I  WOULD  rather  be  anything  than  a  slave,  — 
except  a  slave-owner!"  said  a  wise  and  good 
man.  The  slave-owner  inflicts  wrongs,  —  the  slave 
but  suffers  it.  He  has  friends  and  champions  by 
thousands.  Some  men  live  only  to  defend  and 
save  him.  Many  are  willing  to  fight  for  him. 
Some  even  to  die  for  him. 

The  most  effective  romance  of  our  times  has 
been  written  for  slaves.  The  genius  of  more  than 
one  of  our  best  poets  has  been  consecrated  to 
them.  They  divide  the  hearts  and  councils  of  our 
great  nation.  They  are  daily  remembered  in  the 
prayers  of  the  faithful.  They  are  the  most  earnest 
topic  of  the  Christian  world. 

But  the  slave-owner!  who  weeps,  who  prays, 
who  lives,  who  dies  for  him !  True,  he  is  of  the 
boasted  Saxon  race,  or  descended  from  the  brilliant 
Gaul,  or  gifted  Celt.  He  is  enriched  by  the  trans- 
mitted civilization  of  all  ages.  He  has  been 
nurtured  by  Christian  institutions.  To  him  have 
been  opened  the  fountains  of  Divine  truth.  But 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM.  > 

from  this  elevation  he  is  to  be  dragged  down  by 
the  mill-stone  of  slavery. 

If  he  be  a  rural  landlord,  he  looks  around  upon, 
his  ancestral  possessions,  and  sees  the  curse  of 
slave-ownership  upon  them,  —  he  knows  the  time 
must  come  when  "the  field  shall  yield  no  meat, 
the  flock  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold,  and  there 
shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stall."  To  him  the  onward; 
tendencies  of  the  age  are  reversed.  His  move* 
ment  is  steadily  backward. 

To  the  slave  are  held  out  the  rewards  of  forti- 
tude, of  long  suffering,  of  meekness,  of  patience  in 
tribulation.  What  and  where  are  the  promises 
to  the  slave-owner  ? 

Thousands  among  them  are  in  a  false  position. 
They  are  the  involuntary  maintainers  of  wrong, 
and  transmitters  of  evil.  Hundreds  among  them" 
have  scrupulous  consciences  and  tender  feelings. 
They  use  power  gently.  They  feed  their  servants 
bountifully.  They  nurse  the  sick  kindly, — and! 
devote  weary  days  to  their  instruction.  But  alas! 
they  live  under  the  laws  of  slave-owners.  They 
are  forbidden  to  teach  the  slave  to  read,  write,  or 
cipher,  to  give  them  the  means  of  independent 
progress  and  increasing  light.  Their  teaching  is 
as  bootless  as  the  labor  of  Sysyphus!  most  weari- 
some and  disheartening. 

The  great  eras  of  domestic  life,  bright  to  the- 
thoughtless  slave,  are  dark  with  forecasting  shad- 
ows to  the  slave-owner.     The  mother  cannot  for- 
3 


26 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


get  her  sorrows,  because  a  man-child  is  born.  If 
she  dare  contemplate  his  future,  she  sees  that  the 
activities  of  his  nature  must  be  repressed,  his  facul- 
ties but  half  developed,  his  passions  stimulated 
by  irresponsible  power,  inflamed  by  temptation, 
and  solicited  by  convenient  opportunity.  She 
knows  that  his  path  in  life  must  be  more  and 
more  entangled  as  he  goes  onward,  —  darker  and 
darker  with  the  ever-deepening  misery  of  this 
cruel  institution. 

Is  it  a  <  merry  marriage-bell  '  that  rings  in  the 
ear  of  a  slave-owning  mother  for  the  bridal  of 
her  daughter  ?  Does  not  her  soul  recoil  from  the 
possible  (probable  ?)  evils  before  her  child  ;  to  be 
placed,  perchance,  on  an  isolated  plantation,  envi- 
roned by  natural  enemies  to  ;  see,  it  may  be,  the 
brothers  and  sisters  of  her  own  children  follow 
their  slave-mother  to  the  field,  or  severed  from  her 
to  be  sold  at  the  slave-market  ? 

Compared  with  these  miseries  of  the  slave-owner, 
what  are  the  toils  and  stripes  of  the  slave  ?  what 
his  labor  without  stimulus  or  requital  ?  what  his 
degradation  to  a  chattel^  what  the  deprivation  of 
security  to  the  ties  of  kindred,  and  the  annulling 
of  that  relation  which  is  their  source  and  chiefest 
blessing  ? 

The  slave  looks  forward  with  ever-growing 
hope  to  the  struggle  that  must  come.  He  joyfully 
"  smells  the  battle  afar  off."  The  slave-owner 
folds  his  arms,  and  shuts  his  eyes  in  paralyzing 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          27 

despair.  He  hears  the  fearful  threatenings  of  the 
gathering  storm.  He  knows  it  must  come,  —  to 
him  fatally.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time ! 

Who  would  not  "  rather  be  a  slave  than  a  slave- 
owner ?  " 


X 


:28  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


LETTER  FROM  THE  BISHOP  OF  OXFORD*  TO 
THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


CUDDELDON  PALACE,  JULY  7,  1852. 
MADAM:  — 

I  readily  comply  with  your  desire.  England 
taught  her  descendants  in  America  to  injure  their 
African  brethren.  Every  Englishman  should  aid 
the  American  to  get  rid  of  this  cleaving  wrong 
;and  deep  injury  to  his  race  and  nation. 
I  am  ever  yours, 


*  A  son  of  that  distinguished  friend  of  humanity  WILLIAM 

'WlLBERFORCE. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          29 


HIDE  THE  OUTCASTS." 


HIDE  the  outcasts,  and  bewray  not 
Him  that  wand'reth  to  be  free ; 

Haste !  —  deliver  and  delay  not ;  — 
Let  my  outcasts  dwell  with  thee.* 

Shelter  thou  shalt  not  refuse  him, 
Lest,  with  him,  his  Lord  ye  slight ;  f 

When,  at  noon,  the  foe  pursues  him, 
Make  thy  shadow  dark  as  night. 

With  thee  shall  he  dwell,  protected, 
Near  thee,  cherished  by  thy  side ; 

*  "  Take  counsel,  execute  judgment ;  make  thy  shadow  as  the 
night  in  the  midst  of  the  noon-day ;  hide  the  outcasts  ;  bewray  not 
him  that  wandereth.  Let  my  outcasts  dwell  with  thee,  Moab  ;  he 
thou  a  covert  to  them,  from  the  face  of  the  spoiler."  Isaiah  16  : 
3,4. 

t  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did 
it  not  to  me." — Jesus  Christ.  Matt.  25  :  45. 

3* 


30          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Though  degraded,  scorned,  neglected,  — » 
Thrust  him  not  away,  in  pride.* 

»- 

As,  in  truth,  ye  would  that  others 
Unto  you  should  succor  lend, 

So,  to  them,  as  equal  brothers, 
Equal  love  and  help  extend.f 

Thou  shalt  not  the  slave  deliver 
To  his  master,  when  he  flees :  — 

Heritage,  from  GOD,  the  Giver, 

Yield  them  freely,  where  they  please.  J 

As  thy  self,  §  —  thy  babes,  —  their  mother,  — 
Thou  would st  shield  from  murd'rous  arm, 

So  the  slave,  thy  equal  brother, 

And  his  household,  shield  from  harm. 

*  "  Is  it  not  that  thou  deal  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  that 
*thou  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy  house  ?  when  thou 
seest  the  naked  that  thou  cover  him  ?  and  that  thou  hide  not  thyself 
Jfrom  thine  own  flesh  ?  "  "  If  thou  take  away  from  the  midst  of  thce 
the  yoke,  the  putting  forth  of  the  finger,  and  speaking  of  vanity," 
etc.  Isa.  58  :  6-9. 

t  "  Therefore,  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
•do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the 
prophets."  —  Jesus  Christ.  Matt.  7  :  12. 

J  "  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master,  the  servant  which 
is  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee.  He  shall  dwell  with  thee  ; 
even  among  you  in  that  place  which  he  shall  choose,  in  one  of  thy 
gates,  where  it  liketh  him  best;  thou  shalt  not  oppress  him." 
Deut.  23  :  15,  16. 

§  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Lev.  19:  18. 
[Matt.  19  :  19. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          31 

Hearken,  ye  that  know  and  fear  me,* 

Ye  who  in  my  law  delight ; 
Ye  that  seek  me,  and  revere  me, 

Hate  the  wrong,  and  love  the  right,  f 

Fear  ye  not,  when  men  upbraid  you, 
Worms  shall  all  their  strength  devour ; 

My  salvation  still  shall  aid  you, 
Coming  ages  learn  my  power. 

Why  forget  the  Lord  thy  Maker  ? 

Why  th'  oppressor's  fury  dread  ? 
Zion's  King  shall  ne'er  forsake  her ;  — 

Where  's  th'  oppressor's  fury  fled  ?  $ 

Scorn  the  mandates  of  transgressors ;  § 
Fear  thy  God,  and  fear  none  other ; 

'Gainst  thyself  conspire  oppressors, 
When  they  bid  thee  bind  thy  brother, 

*  "  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  that  know  righteousness ;  the  people 
in  whose  heart  is  my  law  :  fear  ye  not  the  reproach  of  men, 
neither  be  ye  afraid  of  their  revilings.  For  the  moth  shall  eat 
them  up  like  a  garment,  and  the  worm  shall  eat  them  like  wool ; 
but  my  righteousness  shall  be  forever,  and  my  salvation  from 
generation  to  generation."  Isaiah  51  :  7,  8. 

t  "  Ye  that  love  the  Lord,  hate  evil."  Ps.  97  :  10.  "  The  fear 
of  the  Lord  is  to  hate  evil."  Prov.  8  :  13. 

J  "  Who  art  thou,  that  thou  shouldst  be  afraid  of  a  man  ?  *  *  * 
And  forgettest  the  Lord  thy  Maker,  *  *  *  and  hast  feared  con- 
tinually every  day,  because  of  the  fury  of  the  oppressor,  as  if  he 
were  ready  to  destroy  ?  And  where  is  the  fury  of  the  oppressor  ?" 
Isaiah  51  :  12,  13,  14. 

§  "  We  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men."    Acts  5  :  29. 


32          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Lo  !  the  captive  exile  hasteth 

To  be  loosed  from  thrall,  forever ;  * 

Lo !  the  power  of  tyrants  wasteth, 
Perished  soon,  —  recovered,  never! 


*  "The  captive  exile  hasteth  that  he  may  be  loosed,"  etc. 
Isaiah  51:  15. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          33 


CAN  SLAVES  RIGHTFULLY  RESIST  AND  FIGHT? 


I  DO  not  answer  this  question.  But  the  follow- 
ing facts  are  submitted  as  containing  the  materials 
for  an  answer. 

About  seventy  years  ago,  three  millions  of 
people  in  America  thought  themselves  wronged  by 
the  powers  ordained  of  God.  They  resolved  not 
to  endure  the  wrong.  They  published  to  the 
world  a  statement  of  grievances  which  justified 
resistance  to  the  powers  ordained  of  God,  and 
deliberately  revolted  against  the  king,  though  ex- 
plicitly commanded  by  God  to  "  honor  the  king." 
In  the  process  of  revolt,  about  one  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  Europeans  and  Americans,  —  were 
slaughtered  in  battle,  or  slowly  butchered  by  the 
sickness,  imprisonments,  and  hardships  incident  to 
a  state  of  war. 

It  was  distinctly  maintained  in  1776,  that  men 
may  rightfully  fight  for  liberty,  and  resist  the 
powers  ordained  of  God,  if  those  powers  destroyed 
liberty.  Christian  men,  ministers  in  their  pulpits 
strenuously  argued  that  it  was  men's  duty  to  fight 


34          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

for  liberty,  and  to  kill  those  who  opposed  them. 
Prayer  was  offered  to  God  for  success  in  this 
process  of  resistance  and  blood ;  and  good  men 
implored  and  obtained  help  from  other  nations,  to 
complete  the  work  of  resistance  to  oppression,  and 
death  to  the  oppressors. 

I  do  not  say  that  these  positions  were  right,  or 
that  the  men  of  1776  acted  right.  But  I  do  say, 
that  if  they  were  right,  we  are  necessarily  led  to 
some  startling  conclusions.  For  there  are  now 
three  millions  of  people  of  America  grievously 
wronged  by  the  government  they  live  under.  If  it 
was  right  in  1776  to  resist,  fight,  and  kill,  to  secure 
liberty,  —  it  is  right  to  do  the  same  in  1852.  If 
three  millions  of  whites  might  rightfully  resist  the 
powers  ordained  of  God,  then  three  millions  of 
blacks  may  rightfully  do  the  same.  If  France 
was  justified  in  aiding  our  band  of  revolutionists 
to  fight  for  liberty,  then  a  foreign  nation  may 
lawfully  aid  men  now  to  vindicate  their  rights. 
If,  as  the  men  of  1776  declared,  "when  a  long 
train  of  abuses  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them 
under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their 
duty,  to  throw  off  such  government,"  —  then  it  is 
the  duty  of  three  millions  of  men  in  1852,  to  throw 
off  the  government  which  reduces  them  to  the 
frightful  and  absolute  despotism  of  chattel  slavery. 

But  what  were  the  oppressions,  which,  in  1776, 
justified  revolt,  battle,  and  one  hundred  thousand 
deaths  ?  They  are  stated  in  the  "Declaration  of 
Independence,"  are  familiar  to  all,  and  will  there- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          35 

fore  only  be  abridged  here.  The  powers  ordained 
of  God  over  the  men  of  1776,  — •• "  restrained  their 
trade,"  —  "  refused  assent  to  laws  enacted  by  the 
local  legislature,"  — "  kept  soldiers  to  overawe 
them,"  —  "  did  not  punish  soldiers  for  killing  a  few 
colonists,"  —  "imposed  taxes  without  their  con- 
sent," —  "in  some  cases,  did  not  allow  them  trial 
by  jury,"  —  "  abolished  good  laws,"  —  "  made  war 
on  them  in  case  of  disobedience." 

These  were  the  wrongs  they  complained  of. 
But  nearly  all  their  rights  were  untouched.  They 
had  schools  and  colleges,  and  could  educate  their 
children ;  they  could  become  intelligent  and  learned 
themselves  ;  they  could  acquire  property,  and  large 
numbers  of  them  had  become  rich ;  they  could 
emigrate  without  hindrance  to  any  other  country, 
when  weary  of  the  oppressions  of  their  own ;  they 
could  elect  their  own  town  and  state  officers  ;  they 
could  keep  swords,  muskets,  powder  and  ball  in 
their  own  houses ;  they  could  not  be  lashed  and 
sold  like  brutes  ;  they  were  never  compelled  to 
work  without  wages ;  they  could  appeal  to  courts 
of  justice  for  protection. 

Let  us  now  hear  a  statement  of  the  wrongs 
inflicted  on  three  millions  of  Americans  in  1852. 

We  have  no  rights  left  to  us. 

Laws  forbid  us  to  be  taught  even  to  read, 
and  severe  penalties  are  inflicted  on  those  who 
teach  us. 

>     The  natural  right  of  the  parent  over  the  child  is 
wholly  taken  away  ;  our  children  are  systematically 


36  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

kept  in  profound  ignorance,  and  are  worked  or 
sold  like  brutes,  at  the  will  of  slave-holders. 

We  can  acquire  no  property,  and  are  kept  in 
utter  and  perpetual  pauperism,  dependent  on  the 
mere  caprice  or  selfishness  of  other  men  for  sub- 
sistence. 

If  we  attempt  peaceably  to  emigrate  from  this 
land  of  oppression,  we  are  hunted  by  bull-dogs,  or 
shot  down  like  beasts,  —  dragged  back  to  perpetual 
slavery  without  trial  by  jury. 

We  are  exposed  to  the  most  degrading  and 
revolting  punishments,  without  judge  or  trial,  at 
the  passion,  caprice,  or  cruelty  of  the  basest 
overseers. 

When  our  wives  and  daughters  are  seduced  or 
ravished,  we  are  forbidden  to  appeal  to  the  courts 
of  justice. 

Whatever  outrage  may  be  perpetrated  on  our- 
selves or  our  families,  we  have  no  redress. 

We  are  compelled  to  work  without  wages; 
the  fruits  of  our  labor  are  systematically  extorted 
from  us. 

Many  thousands  of  our  people  are  annually 
collected  by  slave-traders,  and  sold  to  distant 
States  ;  by  which  means  families  are  broken  up, 
and  the  most  frightful  debasement,  anguish,  and 
outrage  is  inflicted  on  us. 

We  have  no  access  to  courts  of  justice,  no  voice 
in  the  election  of  rulers,  no  agency  in  making  the 
laws,  —  not  even  the  miserable  remnant  of  liberty, 
in  choosing  the  despot  who  may  have  absolute 
power  over  us. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          37 

We  •  are  hopelessly  consigned  to  that  condition 
most  revolting  and  loathsome  to  one  in  whom 
the  least  vestige  of  manly  or  womanly  feeling  is 
left,  —  that  of  absolute  slavery. 

The  laws  treat  us  not  as  human  beings,  but  "  as 
chattels  personal,  to  all  intents,  constructions,  and 
purposes  whatsoever." 

Great  numbers  of  our  people,  in  addition  to  all 
these  enormities,  endure  unutterable  bodily  suffer- 
ings, from  the  cruelty  and  torturing  punishments 
inflicted  on  us. 

I  do  not  assert  that  three  millions  of  people, 
suffering  such  intolerable  wrongs  and  outrages, 
ought  to  throttle  their  oppressors,  and  kill  fifty 
thousand  of  them.  I  only  say,  that  if  it  was  right 
to  do  so  in  1776,  it  is  also  right  to  do  the  same  in 
1852.  If  the  light  oppressions  which  the  men  of 
the  last  century  endured  justified  war  and  blood- 
shed, then  oppressions  ten  thousand  times  worse,, 
would  surely  justify  revolt  and  blood.  If  the 
colonists  might  rightfully  refuse  to  "  remain  in  the^ 
calling  wherein  they  were  called,"  as  subjects  of 
the  English  government,  then  slaves  may  right- 
fully refuse  to  continue  in  the  calling  wherein, 
they  were  called.  If  three  millions  of  men  might 
lawfully  disregard  the  text,  "  honor  the  king,"  on 
the  ground  that  the  king  oppressed  them ;  then  thre& 
millions  of  men  may  lawfully  disregard  the  text,. 
"  servants,  obey  your  masters,"  on  the  ground  that 
those  masters  grievously  oppress  them.  If  the 
prospect  of  success  justified  the  war  of  1776,  then 
4 


38 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


as  soon  as  three  millions  of  slaves  feel  able  and 
determined  to  vindicate  their  rights,  they  may 
justly  demand  them  at  the  point  of  the  sword ;  and 
any  black  Washington  who  shall  lead  his  country- 
men to  victory  and  liberty,  even  through  carnage, 
will  merit  our  veneration.  If  "  liberty  or  death  " 
was  a  noble  and  Christian  war-cry  in  1776  for  the 
oppressed,  then  it  would  be  noble  and  Christian- 
like  for  the  oppressed  men  of  1852  practically  to 
adopt  the  same. 

If  these  inferences  appear  startling  and  even 
horrible,  why  do  they  so  appear?  Is  there  any 
reason  except  that  inveterate  prejudice,  which  ap- 
plies very  different  principles  to  the  colored  man 
and  to  the  white  man  ?  If  three  millions  of  white 
men  were  in  slavery  in  Algiers  now,  should  we 
not  urge  them,  as  soon  as  there  was  hope  of  suc- 
cess, to  imitate  the  men  of  1776,  rise  and  fight  for 
liberty  ?  Therefore,  until  we  are  prepared  to  con- 
demn our  ancestors  as  guilty  rebels,  and  abhor 
their  insurrection  as  a  wicked  resistance  to  the 
ordinance  of  God,  can  we  blame  any  class  of 
people  for  successful  revolt  against  an  oppressive 
government  ? 

Let  this  further  question  be  pondered.  Who 
were  to  blame  for  the  destruction  of  one  hundred 
thousand  lives  in  the  war  of  1776  ?  The  oppressors, 
or  the  oppressed  ?  The  men  who  fought  for  liberty, 
or  the  men  who  would  not  let  them  have  it  without 
fighting  ?  Who  then  would  be  responsible  for  the 
death  of  one  hundred  thousand  men,  if  the  op- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  39 

pressed  men  of  1852  should  kill  so  many,  in  fight- 
ing for  liberty  ? 

If  the  reader  is  shocked  by  such  inquiries  and 
inferences,  and  as  directly  and  intentionally  de- 
signed to  encourage  servile  insurrection  and  civil 
war,  he  may  be  assured  that  my  aim  is  entirely 
different.  It  is  my  wish,  to  secure  timely  precau- 
tions against  danger.  For  we  are  to  remember, 
that  our  slave  and  colored  population  is  advancing 
with  the  same  gigantic  rate  of  increase  character- 
istic of  our  country.  In  twenty-five  years,  we  shall 
have  six  millions  of  slaves ;  in  fifty  years,  twelve  mil- 
lions ;  in  seventy-five  years,  twenty-four  millions. 
Can  any  one  dream  of  the  possibility  of  retaining 
twenty-four  millions,  or  twelve  millions,  of  human 
beings  in  slavery  ?  Long  before  that  number  is 
reached,  will  not  vast  multitudes  of  them  learn  the 
simple  lessons  of  liberty  and  right,  which  our 
books,  orations,  and  politicians  inculcate  day  by 
day  ?  Will  there  not  arise  among  them  men  of 
courage,  genius,  enthusiasm,  who  will,  at  all  haz- 
ards, lead  them  on  to  that  glorious  liberty  which 
we  have  taught  them  is  cheaply  purchased  at  any 
peril,  or  war,  or  bloodshed?  When  that  day 
comes,  as  sure  it  must,  will  there  not  be  horrors 
such  as  civil  war  has  never  yet  produced  ?  Is  it 
not  wise,  then,  to  begin  measures  for  averting  so 
fearful  a  catastrophe  ?  Is  it  not  madness  to  slum- 
ber over  such  a  frightful  future  ?  Should  not  the 
talent  and  energies  of  the  country  be  directed  to 
the  momentous  inquiry,  How  can  slavery  now  be 


40 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


peacefully  and  rightfully  removed?  Does  not 
every  attempt  to  hush  agitation,  and  insist  on  the 
>finality  of  anti-slavery  measures,  make  more  sure 
?fche  awful  fact  that  slavery  is  to  work  out  its  own 
•emancipation  in  fighting  and  blood  ? 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          41 


DEATH  IN  LIFE. 


SUPPOSED  INSCRIPTION  UPON  THE  SEPULCHRE  OF  A  NEGRO  SLAVE, 
WHO,  FOR  SOME  IMAGINED  CRIME,  HAD  BEEN  IMMURED  HALF 
A  CENTURY  IN  A  DUNGEON. 


OPE,  jealous  portal !  ope  thy  cavern  womb, 
Thy  pris'ner  will  not  flee  its  close  embrace  ; 

He  lived  and  moved  too  long  within  a  tomb, 
Beyond  its  narrow  bounds  to  dream  of  space. 

To  eat  his  crust  and  muse,  unvarying  lot ! 

Thus,  like  his  beard,  his  life  slow  lengthening  grew ; 
So  long  shut  out,  the  world  the  wretch  forgot, 

His  cell  his  universe,  —  't  was  all  he  knew. 

For  Memory  soon  with  loving  pinions  wheeled 
In  circles  narrowing  each  successive  flight ; 

Her  sickly  wings  at  length  enfeebled  yield, 

Too  weak  to  scale  the  walls  that  bound  his  sight. 

But  Hope  sat  with  him  once,  and  cheered  his  day ; 

And  raised  his  limbs,  and  kept  his  lamp  alight ; 
Scared  by  his  groans,  at  length  she  fled  away  ; 

And  left  him  lone,  —  to  spend  one  endless  night. 


42          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

What  change  to  him,  then,  is  the  vault  beldw, 
From  that  where  late  the  captive  was  confined  ? 

But  this,  —  a  worm  here  eats  his  BODY  now  ; 
Whilst  there  it  gnawed  his  slow  decaying  MIND. 


LONDON,  1852. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          43 


TRUE   REFORM. 


I  HAVE  received  your  appeal,  my  friends,  and 
am  not  sorry  to  find  myself  remembered  by  you. 
Every  moment  of  the  ages  is  pregnant  with  the 
fate  of  humanity,  but  we  are  inclined  to  imagine 
that  in  which  we  live  to  have  a  peculiar  signifi- 
cance. At  this  hour,  it  seems  to  us  as  if  the  great 
balance  of  justice  swayed  to  and  fro,  in  most  dis- 
heartening uncertainty  ;  but  this  moment,  like  all 
others,  lies  in  the  hollow  of  God's  hand,  and  his 
infinite  love  will  not  fail  to  justify  to  men  and 
angels  its  terrible  discipline. 

I  have  departed  on  this  occasion  from  the  piian 
of  action  once  Jaid  down  to  myself.  I  have  not 
presented  you  in  these  pages  with  the  revolting 
facts  of  slavery ;  for  to  deal  with  the  subject  at 
this  moment  in  a  fitting  manner,  demands  a  pru- 
dence and  tact  not  likely  to  be  possessed  by  one 
absent  from  the  scene  of  action,  and  ignorant  of 
the  passing  moment.  I  wish  to  convey  to  you  the 
assurance  of  my  deep  sympathy  in  all  Christ-like 
opposition  to  sin  ;  my  deep  sorrow  for  every  loss 
of  manly  self-control,  and  failure  of  faith  in  God, 


44          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

among  reformers ;  my  conviction  that  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  in  so  far  as  it  is  not 
in  harmony  with  the  law  of  God,  can  be  no  sure 
foundation  for  the  law  of  man  ;  that  until  it  gives 
place  to  a  higher  ground  of  union,  or  until  the 
nation  consent  to  give  it  a  higher  interpretation,  it 
will  depress  the  national  industry,  corrupt  the 
national  morals,  and  palsy  the  national  strength. 
It  is  my  firm  faith,  that  man  owes  his  first  allegi- 
ance to  God,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  citizen 
who  disobeys  the  law  of  a  land,  to  bear  its  penalties 
with  a  patience  and  firmness  which  shall  show  him 
:  adequate  to  the  hour,  and  neither  unwilling  nor 
unfit  to  complete  the  sacrifice  he  has  begun.  Above 
all,  O  my  friends!  I  pray  that  God  may  fill  the 
hearts  of  the  reformers  in  this  cause,  with  the 
deepest  devotion  to  His  absolute  truth,  the  truest 
perception  of  the  humility  of  Christ ;  that  He  may 
show  them  how,  as  its  exigencies  press,  they  must 
not  only  be  men  full  of  anti-slavery  zeal,  but  filled 
with  Divine  prudence,  sincere  desirers  of  that 
peace  which  is  founded  on  purity,  —  possessors  of 
that  temperance  which  is  its  own  best  pledge.  In 
the  consciousness  of  the  martyrdom  of  the  affec- 
tions, which  his  position  involves,  the  reformer 
feels  oftentimes  secure  of  his  eternal  compensation. 
But  I  have  wondered,  of  late,  whether  martyrdom 
may  not  be  as  dangerous  to  his  spiritual  life  as 
worldly  renown,  or  pecuniary  prosperity. 

Stretched  upon  the  rack,  I  may  still  be  puffed 
up  with  pride,  or  an  unhealthy  spirit  of  self-depen- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          45 

dence ;  and  sacrificing  my  last  copper  on  the  altar 
of  a  great  truth,  I  may  still  refuse  to  offer  there 
my  personal  vanity,  my  wilful  self-esteem,  or  my 
bitterness  of  temper. 

Let  us  be  willing,  O  my  friends !  to  lay  these 
also  at  the  feet  of  Christ. 


TORONTO,  CANADA,  JULY  22,  1852. 


46          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


HOW  LONG? 


How  long,  O  gracious  God !  how  long, 

Shall  power  lord  it  over  right  ? 
The  feeble,  trampled  by  the  strong, 

Remain  in  slavery's  gloomy  night  ? 
In  every  region  of  the  earth, 

Oppression  rules  with  iron  power ; 
And  every  man  of  sterling  worth, 

Whose  soul  disdains  to  cringe  or  cower 
Beneath  a  haughty  tyrant's  nod, 
And,  supplicating,  kiss  the  rod 
That,  wielded  by  oppression's  might, 
Smites  to  the  earth  his  dearest  right,  — 
The  right  to  speak,  and  think,  and  feel, 

And  spread  his  uttered  thoughts  abroad, 
To  labor  for  the  common  weal, 

Responsible  to  none  but  God,  — 
Is  threatened  with  the  dungeon's  gloom, 
The  felon's  cell,  the  traitor's  doom, 
And  treacherous  politicians  league 

With  hireling  priests,  to  crush  and  ban 
All  who  expose  their  vile  intrigue, 

And  vindicate  the  rights  of  man. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          47 

How  long  shall  Afric'  raise  to  thee 

Her  fettered  hand,  O  Lord !  in  vain, 
And  plead  in  fearful  agony 

For  vengeance  for  her  children  slain  ? 
I  see  the  Gambia's  swelling  flood, 

And  Niger's  darkly  rolling  wave, 
Bear  on  their  bosoms,  stained  with  blood, 

The  bound  and  lacerated  slave  ; 
While  numerous  tribes  spread  near  and  far, 
Fierce,  devastating,  barbarous  war, 
Earth's  fairest  scenes  in  ruin  laid, 
To  furnish  victims  for  that  trade, 
Which  breeds  on  earth  such  deeds  of  shame, 
As  fiends  might  blush  to  hear  or  name. 
I  see  where  Danube's  waters  roll, 

And  where  the  Magyar  vainly  strove, 
With  valiant  arm  and  faithful  soul, 

In  battle  for  the  land  he  loved,  — 
A  perjured  tyrant's  legions  tread 
The  ground  where  Freedom's  heroes  bled, 
And  still  the  voice  of  those  who  feel 
Their  country's  wrongs,  with  Austrian  steel. 
I  see  the  "  Rugged  Russian  Bear," 
Lead  forth  his  slavish  hordes,  to  war 
Upon  the  right  of  every  State 
Its  own  affairs  to  regulate  ; 
To  help  each  despot  bind  the  chain 
Upon  the  people's  rights  again, 
And  crush  beneath  his  ponderous  paw 
All  constitutions,  rights,  and  law. 
I  see  in  France,  —  O  burning  shame  !  — 


48          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM, 

The  shadow  of  a  mighty  name, 
Wielding  the  power  her  patriot  bands 
Had  boldly  wrenched  from  kingly  hands, 
With  more  despotic  pride  of  sway 
Than  ever  monarch  dared  display. 
The  Fisher,  too,  whose  world-wide  nets 

Are  spread  to  snare  the  souls  of  men, 
By  foreign  tyrants'  bayonets 

Established  on  his  throne  again, 
Blesses  the  swords  still  reeking  red 

With  the  best  blood  his  country  bore, 
And  prays  for  blessings  on  the  head 

Of  him  who  wades  through  Roman  gore. 
The  same  unholy  sacrifice 
Where'er  I  turn  bursts  on  mine  eyes, 
Of  princely  pomp,  and  priestly  pride, 

The  people  trampled  in  the  dust, 
Their  dearest,  holiest  rights  denied, 

Their  hopes  destroyed,  their  spirit  crushed 
But  when  I  turn  the  land  to  view, 

Which  claims,  par  excellence,  to  be 
The  refuge  of  the  brave  and  true, 

The  strongest  bulwark  of  the  free, 
The  grand  asylum  for  the  poor 

And  trodden  down  of  every  land, 
Where  they  may  rest  in  peace,  secure, 

Nor  fear  the  oppressor's  iron  hand,  — 
Worse  scenes  of  rapine,  lust,  and  shame, 
Than  e'er  disgraced  the  Russian  name, 
Worse  than  the  Austrian  ever  saw, 
Are  sanctioned  here  as  righteous  law. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          49 

Here  might  the  Austrian  butcher*  make 

Progress  in  shameful  cruelty, 
Where  women-whippers  proudly  take 

The  meed  and  praise  of  chivalry. 
Here  might  the  cunning  Jesuit  learn, 

Though  skilled  in  subtle  sophistry, 
And  trained  to  persevere  in  stern 

Unsympathizing  cruelty, 
And  call  that  good,  which,  right  or  wrong, 
Will  tend  to  make  his  order  strong : 
He  here  might  learn  from  those  who  stand 

High  in  the  gospel  ministry, 
The  very  magnates  of  the  land 

In  evangelic  piety, 
That  conscience  must  not  only  bend 

To  everything  the  church  decrees, 
But  it  must  also  condescend, 

When  drunken  politicians  please 
To  place  their  own  inhuman  acts 

Above  the  "  higher  law"  of  God, 
And  on  the  hunted  victim's  tracks 

Cheer  the  malignant  fiends  of  blood, 
To  help  the  man-thief  bind  the  chain 

Upon  his  Christian  brother's  limb, 
And  bear  to  slavery's  hell  again 

The  bound  and  suffering  child  of  Him 
Who  died  upon  the  cross,  to  save 
Alike,  the  master  and  the  slave. 

*  Hay  nan. 

5 


50          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

While  all  the  oppressed  from  every  land 

Are  welcomed  here  with  open  hand, 

And  fulsome  praises  rend  the  heaven 

For  those  who  have  the  fetters  riven 

Of  European  tyranny, 

And  bravely  struck  for  liberty  ; 

And  while  from  thirty  thousand  fanes 

Mock  prayers  go  up,  and  hymns  are  sung, 
Three  million  drag  their  clanking  chains, 

"  Unwept,  unhonored,  and  unsung  ;  " 
Doomed  to  a  state  of  slavery, 

Compared  with  which  the  darkest  night 
Of  European  tyranny, 

Seems  brilliant  as  the  noonday  light. 
While  politicians  void  of  shame, 

Cry  this  is  law  and  liberty, 
The  clergy  lend  the  awful  name 

And  sanction  of  the  Deity, 
To  help  sustain  the  monstrous  wrong, 
And  crush  the  weak  beneath  the  strong. 
Lord,  thou  hast  said  the  tyrant's  ear 

Shall  not  be  always  closed  to  thee, 
But  that  thou  wilt  in  wrath  appear, 

And  set  the  trembling  captive  free. 
And  even  now  dark  omens  rise 

To  those  who  either  see  or  hear, 
And  gather  o'er  the  darkening  skies 

The  threatening  signs  of  fate  and  fear ; 
Not  like  the  plagues  which  Egypt  saw, 

When  rising  in  an  evil  hour, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          51 

A  rebel  'gainst  the  "  higher  law," 

And  glorying  in  her  mighty  power,  — 
Saw  blasting  fire,  and  blighting  hail, 
Sweep  o'er  her  rich  and  fertile  vale, 
And  heard  on  every  rising  gale 
Ascend  the  bitter  mourning  wail ; 
And  blighted  herd,  and  blasted  plain, 
Through  all  the  land  the  first-born  slain, 
Her  priests  and  magi  made  to  cower 
In  witness  of  a  higher  power, 
And  darkness  like  a  sable  pall 

Shrouding  the  land  in  deepest  gloom, 
Sent  sadly  through  the  minds  of  all, 

Forebodings  of  approaching  doom. 
What  though  no  real  shower  of  fire 

Spreads  o'er  this  land  its  withering  blight, 
Denouncing  wide  Jehovah's  ire 

Like  that  which  palsied  Egypt's  might ; 
And  though  no  literal  darkness  spreads 

Upon  the  land  its  sable  gloom, 
And  seems  to  fling  around  our  heads 

The  awful  terrors  of  the  tomb  ; 
Yet  to  the  eye  of  him  who  reads 

The  fate  of  nations  past  and  gone, 
And  marks  with  care  the  wrongful  deeds 

By  which  their  power  was  overthrown,  — 
Worse  plagues  than  Egypt  ever  felt 

Are  seen  wide-spreading  through  the  land, 
Announcing  that  the  heinous  guilt 

On  which  the  nation  proudly  stands, 


52          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Has  risen  to  Jehovah's  throne, 

And  kindled  his  Almighty  ire, 
And  broadcast  through  the  land  has  sown 

The  seeds  of  a  devouring  fire ; 
Blasting  with  foul  pestiferous  breath, 

The  fountain  springs  of  moral  life, 
And  planting  deep  the  seeds  of  death, 

And  future  germs  of  deadly  strife  ; 
And  moral  darkness  spreads  its  gloom 

Over  the  land  in  every  part, 
And  buries  in  a  living  tomb 

Each  generous  prompting  of  the  heart. 
Vice  in  its  darkest,  deadliest  stains, 

Here  walks  with  brazen  front  abroad, 
And  foul  corruption  proudly  reigns 

Triumphant  in  the  church  of  God, 
And  sinks  so  low  the  Christian  name, 
In  foul  degrading  vice  and  shame, 
That  Moslem,  Heathen,  Atheist,  Jew, 

And  men  of  every  faith  and  creed, 
To  their  professions  far  more  true, 

More  liberal  both  in  word  and  deed, 
May  well  reject  with  loathing  scorn 

The  doctrines  taught  by  those  who  sell 
Their  brethren  in  the  Saviour  born, 

Down  into  slavery's  hateful  hell ; 
And  with  the  price  of  Christian  blood 
Build  temples  to  the  Christian's  God, 
And  offer  up  as  sacrifice, 

And  incense  to  the  God  of  heaven, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          53 

The  mourning  wail,  and  bitter  cries, 

Of  mothers  from  their  children  riven ; 
Of  virgin  purity  profaned 

To  sate  some  brutal  ruffian's  lust, 
Millions  of  godlike  minds  ordained 

To  grovel  ever  in  the  dust, 
Shut  out  by  Christian  power  and  might 
From  every  ray  of  Christian  light. 
How  long,  O  Lord  !  shall  such  vile  deeds 

Be  acted  in  thy  holy  name, 
And  senseless  bigots  o'er  their  creeds 

Fill  the  whole  world  with  war  and  flame  ? 
How  long  shall  ruthless  tyrants  claim 

Thy  sanction  to  their  bloody  laws, 
And  throw  the  mantle  of  thy  name 

Around  their  foul,  unhallowed  cause  ? 
How  long  shall  all  the  people  bow 

As  vassals  of  the  favored  few, 
And  shame  the  pride  of  manhood's  brow,  — 

Give  what  to  God  alone  is  due, 
Homage,  to  wealth,  and  rank,  and  power, 
Vain  shadows  of  a  passing  hour  ? 
Oh  for  a  pen  of  living  fire, 

A  tongue  of  flame,  an  arm  of  steel ! 
To  rouse  the  people's  slumbering  ire, 

And  teach  the  tyrants'  hearts  to  feel. 
O  Lord !  in  vengeance  now  appear, 

And  guide  the  battles  for  the  right, 
The  spirits  of  the  fainting  cheer, 

And  nerve  the  patriot's  arm  with  might ; 
5* 


54          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Till  slavery,  banished  from  the  world, 
And  tyrants  from  their  power  hurled, 
And  all  mankind  from  bondage  free, 
Exult  in  glorious  liberty ! 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          55 


LETTER  FROM  WILSON  ARMISTEAD   TO   THE 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


LEEDS,  7TH  MO.  22,  1852. 
MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  — 

In  responding  to  thy  welcome  communication, 
I  may  say  that  I  rejoice  in  the  cause  of  the  inter- 
ruption of  our  correspondence,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
thyself ;  thy  time  and  talents  being  so  increasingly 
occupied,  in  union  with  other  of  humanity's  ad- 
vocates, in  assisting  to  overturn  the  monster 
iniquity  of  our  age,  that  crowning  crime  of 
Christendom,  —  negro  slavery  ! 

Go  on  in  this  good  work!  and  may  God's  bless- 
ing abundantly  attend,  till  the  eternal  overthrow 
be  effected  of  a  system  so  fraught  with  every  evil ; 
so  abhorrent  to  the  rights  of  nature,  and  so  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel ;  —  till  the  galling 
chain  be  broken  off  the  necks  of  America's  three 
million  slaves ;  till  its  victims  be  raised  from  the 
profoundest  depths  of  ignorance  and  woe,  to  which 
they  are  now  degraded. 

'Tis  a  marvel  to  me,  that  a  system  like  that  of 
negro  slavery,  which  admits  of  such  atrocities, 


56          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

can  be  tolerated  for  a  single  hour !  Ought  not 
every  one  who  has  a  spark  of  humanity,  to  say 
nothing  of  Christianity,  in  his  bosom,  —  ought  not 
all  the  sound  part  of  every  community  in  which 
slavery  exists  to  rise  up  en  masse,  and  declare  that 
this  abomination  shall  exist  no  longer  ? 

Who  gave  to  any  man  the  right  to  enslave  his 
fellow  man  ?  Can  any  enactment  of  human  legis- 
lators so  far  sanction  robbery,  as  lawfully  to  make 
one  man  the  property  of  another  ?  Has  God  poured 
the  tide  of  life  through  the  African's  breast,  and 
animated  it  with  a  portion  of  his  own  Divine  spirit, 
and  at  the  same  time  deprived  him  of  all  natural 
affections,  that  he  alone  is  to  be  struck  off  the  list 
of  rational  beings,  and  placed  on  a  level  with  the 
brute  ?  Is  his  flesh  marble,  and  his  sinews  iron, 
or  his  immortal  spirit  of  a  class  condemned,  with- 
out hope,  to  penal  suffering,  that  he  is  called  upon 
to  endure  incessant  toil,  and  to  be  subjected  to 
degradation,  bodily  and  mental,  such  as  no  other 
portion  of  the  family  of  Adam  have  ever  been 
destined  to  endure,  without  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven  being  signally  displayed  upon  the  op- 
pressors ?  Does  the  African  mother  feel  less  love 
to  her  offspring  than  the  white  woman  ?  or 
the  African  husband  regard  with  less  tenderness 
the  wife  of  his  bosom  ?  Is  his  heart  dead  to  the 
ties  of  kindred,  —  his  nature  so  brutalized,  that 
the  sacred  associations  of  home  and  country 
awaken  no  emotions  in  his  breast  ? 

History    unanswerably   demonstrates   that  the 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          57 

negro  does  feel,  keenly  feel,  the  wrongs  inflicted 
upon  him  by  his  unrighteous  enslavers,  and  that 
his  mind,  barren  as  it  has  been  rendered  by  hard 
usage,  and  desolated  with  misery,  is  not  unwatered 
by  the  pure  and  gentle  streams  of  natural  affection. 
Yet  the  lordly  oppressors  remain  unmoved  by  the 
sad  condition  of  the  negro,  contemplate  with  in- 
difference his  bodily  and  mental  sufferings,  and 
still  dare  to  postpone  to  an  indefinite  period  the 
termination  of  his  oppression  and  of  their  own 
guilt. 

But  thanks  be  to  God !  there  is  some  counter- 
acting influence  to  this  feeling,  and  that  it  is  on 
the  advance.  The  night  has  been  long  and  dark,  — 
already  the  horizon  brightens ;  the  day  of  freedom 
dawns. 

Go  on,  then,  my  friend ;  I  say,  go  on  !  in  the 
good  cause  thou  hast  espoused.  Labor,  and  faint 
not.  "  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it 
with  all  thy  might."  My  kind  regards  to  Frederick 
Douglass ;  may  he,  and  all  others  also,  be  strength- 
ened and  encouraged  to  labor  in  the  great  work  of 
human  freedom ;  that  so,  by  gradual  increase,  like 
the  mighty  surge,  they  may  become  strong  enough 
to  overpower  and  drown  the  oppressor,  and  be  en- 
abled to  devise  and  execute  measures  of  mercy 
and  justice,  which  may  avert  the  judgments  of  the 
Almighty  from  their  guilty  land.  For  surely  some 
signal  display  of  Divine  displeasure  must  await 
America,  unless  she  repent,  and  undo  the  heavy 
burdens  of  her  THREE  MILLION  SLAVES. 


58          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Are  not  the  signs  of  the  times  calculated  to 
remind  us  forcibly  of  this  language  of  Isaiah, 
"Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  out  of  his  place  to 
punish  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  for  their  ini- 
quity ;  the  earth  also  shall  disclose  her  blood,  and 
no  more  cover  her  slain."  Do  we  not  hear  already 

" the  wheels  of  an  avenging  God, 


Groan  heavily  along  the  distant  road  ?  " 

Assuredly,  he  comes  to  judge  the  earth.  "  Who 
shall  abide  the  day  of  his  coming  ;  who  shall  stand 
when  he  appeareth  ?  " 

Thy  Friend,  very  truly, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          59 


IMPROMPTU   STANZAS, 


SUGGESTED    BY    THE    WORKING  OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  ACT, 
ILLUSTRATED  IN  THE  CASE  OF  REV.  DOCTOR  PENNINGTON. 


BY   THE   WORK-SHOP   BARD. 

BRING  out  the  handcuffs,  clank  the  rusted  gyves ; 

Rain  down  your  curses  on  the  doomed  race  ; 
Hang  out  a  terror  that  shall  haunt  their  lives, 

In  every  place. 

Unloose  the  blood-hounds  from  oppression's  den ; 

Arm  every  brigand  in  the  name  of  law, 
And  triple  shield  of  pulpit,  press,  and  pen, 

Around  them  draw. 

Ho !  politicians,  orators,  divines ! 

Ho !  cotton-mongers  of  the  North  and  South  ! 
Strike  now  for  slavery,  or  our  Union's  shrines 

Are  gone  forsooth ! 

Down  from  their  glory  into  chaos  hurled, 

Your  thirty  States  in  shivered  fragments  go, 
Like  the  seared  leaves  by  autumn  tempests  whirled 

To  depths  below. 


60          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Closed  be  each  ear,  let  every  tongue  be  dumb  ; 

Nor  one  sad  pitying  tear  o'er  man  be  shed, 
Though  fainting  at  your  threshold  he  should  come, 

And  ask  for  bread. 

Though  woman,  fleeing  from  the  cruel  grip 
Of  foul  oppression,  scarred  and  stained  with 

blood, 

Where  from  the  severed  veins  the  driver's  whip 

Hath  drank  its  flood. 

Though   helpless   childhood   ask  —  O  pitying 

Heaven !  — 

The  merest  crumb  which  falls  upon  the  floor, 
Tho'  faint  and  famished,  bread  must  not  be  given, 

Bolt  fast  the  door. 

And  must  it  be,  thou  just  and  holy  God ! 

That  in  our  midst  thy  peeled  and  stricken  poor 
Shall  kneel  and  plead  amid  their  tears  and  blood, 

For  evermore  ? 

Shall  those  whom  thou  hast  sent  baptized  from 

heaven, 

To  preach  the  Gospel  the  wide  world  around, 
To  teach  the  erring  they  may  be  forgiven, 

Be  seized  and  bound  ? 

Placed  on  the  auction-block,  with  chattels  sold, 

Driven  like  beasts  of  burden  day  by  day, 
The  flock  be  scattered  from  the  shepherd's  fold, 

The  spoiler's  prey  ? 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          61 

How  long  —  thy  people  cry  —  O  Lord,  how  long ! 
Shall  not  thine  arm  "  shake  down  the  bolted 

fire!" 

Can  deeds  like  these  of  God-defying  wrongs, 

Escape  His  ire  ? 

Must  judgments,  —  such  as  swept  with  fearful  tread 

O'er  Egypt  when  she  made  thy  people  slaves, 
Where  thy  hand  strewed  with  their  unburied  dead 

The  Red  Sea  waves  ? 

Must  fire  and  hail  from  heaven  upon  us  fall, 

Our  first-born  perish  'neath  the  Avenger's  brand, 
And  sevenfold  darkness,  like  a  funeral  pall 

O'erspread  the  land  ? 

We  kneel  before  thy  footstool,  gracious  God, 
Spare  thou  our  nation,  in  thy  mercy  spare  ; 
We  perish  quickly  'neath  thy  lifted  rod 

And  arm  made  bare. 


WEST  TEOY,  MARCH,  1851. 


62          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


JOHN  MURRAY  (OF  GLASGOW). 


ABOUT  a  year  ago,  the  newspapers  announced 
the  death  of  Mr.  John  Murray,  for  many  years  the 
secretary  of  the  Glasgow  Emancipation  Society, 
and  I  would  do  violence  to  truth  and  humanity 
whose  servant  and  soldier  he  was,  should  I  neglect 
to  pen  a  few  recollections  of  that  most  earnest  and 
efficient  man. 

He  was  related  to  the  ancient  and  honorable 
ianiily  of  the  Oswalds  of  Sheildhall,  and  received 
that  excellent  educational  and  religious  training 
which  is  given  to  the  children  of  the  middle  and 
higher  classes  in  Scotland.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
two  or  three,  in  consequence  of  an  attack  of  pulmon- 
ary hemorrhage,  he  sailed  for  the  West  Indies  and 
found  employment  at  his  trade,  house-building,  in 
St.  Kitts.  Very  soon,  however,  he  found  other  mat- 
ters to  engage,  and  almost  engross  his  attention 
and  labors  ;  in  conjunction  with  an  uncle  of  George 
Stephen  of  London,  and  a  Dr.  Hamilton,  resident 
in  St.  Kitts,  he  did  manly  and  successful  fight  in 
behalf  of  the  wronged  and  bleeding  slave. 

After  a  residence  in  that  island  of  some  years, 
during  which  he  obtained  a  thorough  knowledge 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


63 


of  the  workings  of  slavery,  he  returned  to  Glasgow, 
poor  in  pocket,  but  rich  in  abolitionism.  Soon 
after  his  return,  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Anna ,  a  lady  whose  perfect  harmony  in  senti- 
ment, softened  by  feminine  delicacy,  made  a  happy 
anti-slavery  home  for  the  zealous  and  ardent  abo- 
litionism of  John  Murray.  It  was  a  union  of 
hearts  attached  in  early  youth,  and  which  had 
remained  "  leal "  during  a  long  separation. 

Shortly  after  marriage,  he  commenced  business 
as  a  spirit-dealer,  then  and  now  a  most  reputa- 
ble calling  in  the  opinion  of  the  good  citizens  of 
Glasgow.  Temperate  himself,  his  calling  grad- 
ually became  unpleasant  to  him.  At  first  he  refused 
to  sell  spirits  to  any  person  partly  inebriated ;  then 
he  reasoned  himself  into  a  total  abandonment  of 
the  death-dealing  traffic.  With  no  other  business 
prospect  before  him,  prevented  by  his  long  diffi- 
culty from  working  at  his  trade,  with  a  young  wife 
and  child  dependent  on  him,  he  suddenly  locked 
up  his  spirit-cellar  and  never  more  sold  rum ! 

In  1828  or  1829,  through  the  influence  of  his  kins- 
man, James  Oswald,  Esq.,  of  Sheildhall,  Mr.  Mur- 
ray was  appointed  surveyor  on  a  part  of  the  Forth 
and  Clyde  canal,  an  office  requiring  much  labor 
for  little  pay.  His  prospects  of  promotion  depended 
on  Mr.  Oswald  and  other  members  of  the  Kirk  of 
Scotland.  Mr.  Murray  was  a  full  member  of  the 
Tron  Church,  Glasgow,  when,  according  to  law,  a 
minister  was  appointed  there  regardless  of  the 
choice,  and  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  great 


64          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

majority  of  its  members.  In  consequence  of  this 
appointment,  and  again  unmindful  of  personal  ad- 
vancement, John  Murray  shook  the  dust  from  his 
sandals  and  quit  at  once  and  forever  the  Tron 
vChurch  and  the  Kirk  of  Scotland. 

About  the  same  time  the  Glasgow  Emancipa- 
tion Society  was  formed  or  re-organized,  on  the 
doctrine  of  immediate  emancipation  so  splendidly 
announced  by  a  secession  minister  of  Edinburgh. 
The  secretaries  of  this  association  were  John  Mur- 
ray the  surveyor,  and  William  Smead,  of  the  Gal- 
lowgate,  grocer;  the  last  a  Friend.  These  two 
were  the  head  and  front,  the  thinking  and  the 
locomotive  power  of  this  well  known  association 
which  did  notable  fight,  if  not  the  principal  labor, 
in  effecting  emancipation  in  the  British  West 
Indies,  and  in  assaulting  American  slavery. 

And,  twenty  odd  years  ago,  it  was  no  trilling 
matter  to  do  anti-slavery  work  in  Glasgow,  the 
very  names  of  whose  stateliest  streets  proclaimed 
that  they  were  built  by  money  wrung  out  of  the 
blood  and  sweat  of  the  negroes  of  Jamaica,  St. 
Vincents,  etc.  The  whole  of  the  retired  wealth, 
nearly  all  the  active  business  influence,  the  weight 
of  the  Established  Church,  the  rank  and  fashion 
of  Glasgow,  and  though  last  not  least,  the  keen 
iwit  of  the  poet  Motherwell,*  and  the  great  statisti- 
cal learning  and  industry  of  M' Queen  were  ar- 

*  Editor  of  the  Glasgow  Courier.  Poor  Motherwell !  I  have  it 
from  a  mutual  friend  that  he  sympathized  with  the  cause  of  Free- 
<dom,  while  paid  to  write  against  it. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

rayed  on  the  side  of  the  slave-holder.  Sugar  and 
cotton  and  rum  were  lords  of  the  ascendant !  Yet 
the  poor  surveyor  and  the  humble  grocer  fought 
on  ;  nor  did  they  fight  alone  ;  the  silvery  voice  and 
keen  acumen  of  Ralph  Wardlaw,  the  earnest  and 
powerfuj  Hugh  Heugh,  the  inexorable  logic  and 
burning  sarcasm  of  swarthy  Wully  Anderson,  and 
the  princely  munificence  of  James  Johnston,  com- 
bined to  awaken  the  people  to  the  enormity  of 
slavery.  And  the  Voluntary  Church  movement, 
and  the  fight  for  the  Reform  Bill  aroused  a  varied 
eloquence  in  the  orators  who  plead  for,  and  a  kind- 
ling enthusiasm  in  the  people  who  were  struggling 
on  the  liberal  side  of  all  these  questions ;  for  the 
people,  battling  for  their  own  rights,  had  heart 
room  to  hear  the  prayer  for  the  rights  of  others 
more  deeply  oppressed.  Thus  ever  will  liberty 
be  expansive  and  expanding* in  the  direction  of 
human  brotherhood. 

Then  KNIBB  came  along  with  his  fiery  eloquence, 
which  swept  over  and  warmed  the  hearts  of  the 
people  with  indignation  at  the  dishonor  done 
religion  in  the  martyrdom  of  the  missionary  Smith ; 
and  then  the  grand  scene  in  the  British  emancipa- 
tion drama,  the  overthrow  of  Bostwick  by  George 
Thompson,  and  the  monster  petitions  and  the 
reluctant  assent  of  the  ministry  and  the  passage  of 
the  bill. 

Those  were  stirring  times  in  Glasgow,  and  it 
did  one's  heart  good  to  see  John  Murray  in  their 
midst.  The  arrangements  for  nearly  all  those 


66          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

movements  originated  with,  and  were  earned  out 
by  him ;  he  never  made  a  speech  of  one  minute 
long,  yet  he  most  effectively  arranged  all  the  speak- 
ing, drew  up  all  the  resolutions  and  reports  and 
addresses;  and  most  of  the  movements  in  Eng- 
land, the  pressure  upon  the  ministry,  and  the  ad- 
vocacy in  Parliament  were  the  result  of  his  wide 
and  laborious  correspondence.  He  used  more  than 
one  ream  of  paper  for  manuscripts  upon  the  great 
cause  which  he  seemed  born  to  cany  out  success- 
fully. In  addition  to  his  other  correspondence, 
nearly  every  issue  of  two  of  the  Glasgow  tri-week- 
•ly  papers  contained  able  articles  from  his  pen  in 
Teply  to  the  elaborate  defence  of  slavery  carried  on 
in  the  Glasgow  Courier  by  Mr.  M' Queen.  And 
•yet  this  man,  doing  this  mighty  work,  was  so  en- 
tirely unobtrusive,  so  quiet  in  his  labors,  that  few 
•beyond  the  committee  knew  him  other  than  the 
silent  secretary  of  the  Glasgow  Emancipation  So- 
ciety. And  I  shall  not  soon  forget  the  perfect 
consternation  with  which  he  heard  a  vote  of  thanks 
tendered  him  by  resolution  at  an  annual  meeting 
-of  the  society. 

In  1835  or  1836,  Mr.  Murray  was  promoted  to 
the  office  of  collector  at  Bowling  Bay,  for  the  com- 
pany he  had  so  long  and  faithfully  served.  And 
many  an  anti-slavery  wayfarer  can  testify  to  the 
warm  welcome  and  genial  hospitality  of  the  snug 
little  stone  building  so  beautifully  packed  on  the 
Clyde  entrance  of  the  Forth  and  Clyde  canal.  A 
charming  family,  consisting  of  a  devoted  wife,  two 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  67 

most  promising  boys,  and  a  retiring,  sweet  temper- 
ed girl,  made  happy  the  declining  years  of  this 
great  friend  of  the  slave,  and  earnest  pioneer  in 
many  reforms.  Freedom  for  Ireland,  the  Peace 
Question,  Radical  Reform,  a  Free  Church,  and 
Total  Abstinence,  were  questions  to  all  of  which 
Mr.  Murray  devoted  his  pen  and  his  purse.  His 
soul  received  and  advocated  whatever  looked 
towards  human  progress. 

In  person,  Mr.  Murray  was  tall  and  gaunt,  and 
would  strongly  remind  one  of  Henry  Clay.  About 
a  mile  from  Bowling  Bay,  within  the  enclosure 
that  surrounds  the  Relief  Church,  in  a  sweet  quiet 
spot,  the  green  turf  now  covers  what  remains  of 
the  once  active  frame  of  John  Murray;  and  as, 
with  moistened  cheek,  I  fling  this  pebble  upon  his 
cairn,  I  cannot  help  thinking  how  much  more  has 
been  done  for  the  cause  of  human  progress  by 
this  faithful  servant  to  his  own  convictions  of  the 
truth,  than  by  the  nation-wept  sage  of  Ashland. 


NEW  YORK,  SEPT.  25,  1852, 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


POWER  OF  AMERICAN  EXAMPLE. 


AT  the  last  anniversary  of  the  American  Home 
Missionary  Society,  Rev.  John  P.  Gulliver  made 
an  eloquent  address  on  the  duty  of  bringing  the 
American  people  under  the  full  influence  of  Chris- 
tian principle,  in  an  argument  drawn  from  the 
bearings  of  our  national  example  on  the  people  of 
other  lands.  Christianity,  he  said,  alone  can  make 
the  nations  free.  We  fully  believe  in  this  senti- 
ment. In  answer  to  the  question,  How  is  Chris- 
tianity to  effect  this  result  ?  —  Mr.  Gulliver's  answer 
was :  AMERICA  is  TO  BE  THE  AGENT. 

Other  nations,  he  thought,  might  do  much  in 
working  out  this  great  result ;  but  the  chief  hopes 
of  the  friends  of  freedom,  he  suggested,  are  cen- 
tered upon  this  country.  The  world  needs  an 
example ;  and  he  pointed  to  what  the  example  of 
this  nation  has  already  done,  imperfect  as  it  is. 
"  It  is  doing,  at  this  moment,  more  to  change  the 
political  condition  of  man  than  all  the  armies  and 
navies,  —  than  all  the  diplomacy  and  king-craft  of 
the  world."  If  it  be  so,  if,  as  the  speaker  declared, 
"the  battle  of  the  world's  freedom  is  to  be  fought 
on  our  own  soil,"  it  would  be  interesting  to  look 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          69 

at  the  obstacles  in  the  way.  The  United  States 
must  present  a  very  different  example  from  that 
exhibited  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  now 
exhibited,  before  this  country  will  be  the  agent  of 
Christianity  in  evangelizing  the  world.  Think  of 
three  millions  of  our  countrymen  in  chains ! 
Think  of  the  large  numbers  held  by  ministers  of 
the  gospel  and  members  of  churches !  Think  of 
the  countenance  given  to  slave-holders  by  our 
ecclesiastical  assemblies,  by  Northern  preachers, 
by  Christian  lawyers,  merchants,  and  mechanics ! 
Think  of  the  platforms,  adopted  by  the  two  lead- 
ing political  parties  of  the  country,  composed  part- 
ly of  religious  men!  Think  of  the  dumbness  of 
those  that  minister  at  the  altar,  in  view  of  the 
great  national  iniquity,  and  then  consider  the 
effects  of  such  an  example  upon  other  nations, 
Christian  and  Heathen ! 

Dr.  Hawes  is  stated  to  have  said  at  the  last 
annual  meeting  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  that  Dr. 
John  H.  Rice  said,  in  his  hearing,  more  than 
twenty  years  ago :  "  I  do  not  believe  the  Lord 
will  suffer  the  existing  type  or  character  of  the 
Christian  world  to  be  impressed  on  the  heathen." 
We  also  heard  the  remark,  and  believe  that  Dr. 
Rice,  in  alluding  to  the  state  of  religion  in  this  coun- 
try, said,  "  it  was  so  far  short  of  what  Christianity 
required,  that  sanguine  as  many  were  that  the 
United  States  was  speedily  to  be  the  agent  of  the 
world's  conversion,  he  did  not  believe,  for  one,  that 
God  would  suffer  the  Christianity  of  this  country, 


70          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

as  it  then  was,  to  be  impressed  upon  the  heathen 
world."  If  the  character  of  our  religion  was  thus 
twenty  years  ago,  what  is  it  now  ?  As  a  religious 
people  we  have  been  boastful.  We  have  acted  as 
if  we  thought  God  could  not  convert  the  world 
without  the  instrumentality  of  this  country.  It  is 
far  more  probable  that  the  converted  heathen  will 
send  missionaries  to  the  United  States  to  teach  us 
the  first  rudiments  of  Christianity,  than  that  this 
country,  at  the  present  low  ebb  of  religion,  will  be 
the  agent  of  converting  heathen  nations  to  God. 

Dr.  Hawes  believed  "that  if  the  piety  of  the 
church  were  corrected  and  raised  to  the  standard 
of  Paul,  God  would  soon  give  to  the  Son  the  hea- 
then for  his  inheritance."  No  doubt  of  it.  Such 
piety  would  do  away  with  chattel  slavery,  with 
caste,  with  slavery  platforms,  with  ungodly  rulers, 
with  Indian  oppression,  with  divorcing  Christianity 
from  the  ballot-box,  with  heathenism  at  home. 
Let  us  pray  for  such  piety ;  and  that  hundreds  of 
such  men  as  RICE  and  HAWES  may  lift  up  their 
voices  like  a  trumpet,  and  put  forth  correspond- 
ing action,  until  the  nation  shall  be  regenerated 
and  become  fit  to  enlighten,  and,  through  the  grace 
of  God,  save  a  dying  world. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          71 


THE  GOSPEL  AS  A  REMEDY  FOB  SLAVERY." 


IN  one  of  the  leading  Congregational  papers,  a 
writer,  W.  C.  J.,  has  commenced  a  series  of  com- 
munications under  the  above  heading.  It  is  well  to 
discuss  the  subject.  The  writer  says,  "  There  are, 
it  is  true,  many  among  our  three  millions  of  slaves 
who  are  acquainted  with  the  rudiments  of  religious 
truth,  and  are  leading  lives  of  sincere  piety."  Dr. 
Nelson,  a  native  of  a  slave  State,  stated,  as  the 
result  of  experience  for  many  years,  that  he  had 
never  known  more  than  three  or  four  slaves  who  he 
had  reason  to  believe  were  truly  and  intelligently 
pious.  The  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
published  to  the  world,  some  years  since,  that  the 
great  mass  of  slaves  were  heathen,  as  much  so  as 
the  heathen  of  any  portion  of  the  globe.  What 
authority  W.  C.  J.  has  for  saying  there  are,  among 
the  three  millions  of  American  slaves,  "many" 
who  are  "  leading  lives  of  sincere  piety,"  I  do  not 
know.  It  is  probably  the  mere  conjecture  of  an 
ardent  mind.  He  qualifies  the  expression  by  ask- 
ing, "  What  is  the  type  of  the  religion  that  too 
generally  appears  among  the  slaves  ?  "  And  then 
replies  to  his  own  question,  "  It  is  sickly  and  weak, 
like  a  plant  growing  in  a  cellar,  or  a  cave ;  a  com- 


72  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

pound  of  sincere  piety  with  much  of  superstition 
and  fanaticism."      What  sort  of  piety  is  that  ? 

A  sagacious  observer  has  remarked,  that  there 
never  can  be,  in  our  day,  intelligent  piety  where 
men  are  not  possessed  of  property,  especially  where 
they  are  mere  serfs  or  slaves.  How  many  Ameri- 
can slaves  have  the  piety  of  "  Uncle  Tom,"  we 
are  unable  to  say.  Probably  very  few.  And  it 
must  fill  the  heart  of  every  one  who  loves  the  souls 
of  men,  with  anguish  to  contemplate  the  spiritual 
destitution  of  the  slaves  in  this  country ;  kept  in 
bondage  by  the  religious  and  political  apathy  or 
acts  of  professing  Christians,  of  different  denomi- 
nations, in  their  individual  or  associated  capacity. 
But  to  the  question :  Is  the  gospel  a  remedy  for 
slavery?  We  answer,  unhesitatingly,  not  such  a 
gospel  as  is  preached  to  them  ;  for  while  it  does 
very  little  to  enlighten  either  slave  or  master,  it 
enjoins  upon  the  former  passive  obedience,  and  in- 
culcates upon  the  latter  the  right  and  duty  of  hold- 
ing their  fellow  men  in  bondage.  Nor  have  we 
much  hesitation  in  avowing  it  as  our  belief,  that 
the  gospel,  as  generally  preached  in  the  free  States, 
is  quite  inadequate  to  put  an  end  to  slavery.  It 
does  not  reach  the  conscience  of  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands who  are,  in  various  ways,  connected  with 
slave-holding  by  relationship,  business  correspond- 
ence, or  political  or  ecclesiastical  ties.  As  proof  of 
this,  we  need  only  contemplate  the  action  of  the 
Northern  divisions  of  the  political  and  religious  na- 
tional parties.  Slavery  is  countenanced,  strength- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          73 

ened,  increased,  extended  by  their  connivance  or 
direct  agency.  The  truth  is,  Christianity,  as  pro- 
mulgated by  the  great  mass  of  the  preachers  and 
professors  at  this  day  even  in  the  free  States,  is 
not  a  remedy  for  slavery.  It  is  a  lamentable  truth, 
one  that  might  justly  occasion  in  the  heart  of  every 
true  Christian  the  lamentation  of  the  prophet  Jere- 
miah :  "  Oh  that  my  head  were  waters,  and  mine 
eyes  a  fountain  of  tears,  that  I  might  weep,  day 
and  night,  for  the  slain  of  the  daughters  of  my  peo- 
ple ! "  And  it  is  in  view  of  this  truth,  that  the 
friends  of  a  pure  and  full  gospel  have  great 
encouragement  to  persevere  in  their  work  of  faith 
and  love.  The  missionaries  connected  with  the 
American  Missionary  Association,  at  home  and 
abroad,  inculcate,  fearlessly  and  persistently,  a  gos- 
pel of  freedom,  and  make  no  more  apology  or 
allowance  for  slave-holding  than  for  any  other  sin 
or  crime.  Such  missionaries  should  be  sustained, 
their  numbers  augmented,  and  prayer  ascend  for 
them  continually. 


fe^ 


74  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


LETTER  TO  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


DEAR  MADAM:  — 

Your  request  to  transmit  my  name,  with  a  short 
article,  for  insertion  in  your  contemplated  publica- 
tion, is  before  me.  I  have  neither  time  nor  words 
in  which  to  express  my  unalterable  abhorrence  of 
slavery,  with  all  the  odious  apologies  and  blasphe- 
mous claims  of  Divine  sanction  for  it,  that  have 
been  attempted.  I  regard  all  attempts,  by  legisla- 
tion or  otherwise,  to  give  the  abominable  system 
"aid  and  comfort"  as  involving  treason  against 
the  government  of  God,  and  as  insulting  the  con- 
sciences and  common  sense  of  men. 
Yours  truly, 


OBERLIN,  24  SEPT.,  1852. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          75 


THE    SLAVE'S    PRAYER. 


THE  first  effort  of  my  early  life  in  narrative 
writing,  was  in  behalf  of  those  who,  in  even  dark- 
er days  than  these,  were  preeminently  those  who, 
on  earth,  "  had  no  helper." 

From  this  tale  is  selected  these  few  lines — a 
song  introduced  into  the  story — not  because  it 
has  any  poetic  merit,  but  because  to  me  and  per- 
haps to  others,  it  seems  interesting  from  the  above 
circumstance. 


SONG  OF  PRAISE. 

THOUGH  man  neglects  my  sighing, 
And  mocks  the  bitter  tear, 

Yet  does  not  God  my  crying 
With  kindest  pity  hear  ? 


76          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

And  when  with  fierce  heat  panting 
His  hand  can  be  my  shade, 

And  when  with  weakness  fainting 
Support  my  aching  head. 

And  when  I  felt  my  cares 
For  those  his  love  can  save, 

Will  he  not  hear  the  prayers 
Of  the  poor  negro  slave  ? 

Yes,  for  the  poor  and  needy 

He  promises  to  save, 
And  who  is  poor  and  needy 

Jjike  the  poor  negro  slave ! 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM,          77 


THE    STRUGGLE. 


OURS  is  a  noble  cause  ;  nobler  even  than  that  of 
our  fathers,  inasmuch  as  it  is  more  exalted  to 
struggle  for  the  freedom  of  others,  than  for  our 
own.  The  love  of  right,  which  is  the  animating 
impulse  of  our  movement,  is  higher  even  than  the 
love  of  freedom.  But  right,  freedom,  and  human- 
ity, all  concur  in  demanding  the  abolition  of 
slavery. 


BOSTON,  OCT.  16,  1852. 


7* 


78          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


WORK    AND    WAIT. 


MY  FRIEND  :  — 

I  have  found  no  moment  till  the  present  that  I 
<could  devote  to  a  compliance  with  your  request, 
;and  I  am  now  probably  too  late.  However,  let 
;me  hastily  proffer  a  few  suggestions  to  opponents 
*of  slavery,  which  I  trust  may  not  be  found  unprofit- 
able. I  would  say,  then  : 

1.  Do  not  choose  to  separate  and  isolate  your- 
•selves  from  the  general  movement  of  humanity, 
;save  as  you  may  be  constrained  to  oppose  certain 
eddies  of  that   movement.     Had   WILBERFORCE, 
CLARKSON,    and   their   associate   pioneers   in   the 
cause  of  British  abolition,  seen  fit  to  cut  them- 
selves loose  from  all  preexisting  sects  and  parties, 

;and  for  a  special  anti-slavery  church  and  party, 
I  think  the  triumph  of  their  cause  would  have 
.been  still  unattained. 

2.  Do  not  refuse  to  do  a  little  good  because  you 
would  much  prefer  to  do  a  greater  which  is  now 
unattainable.     The  earth  revolves  in  her  vast  orbit 
gradually ;  and  he  who  has  done  whatever  good  he 
can,  need  not  reproach  himself  for  his  inability  to 

,do  more. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          79 

3.  Be   foremost  in   every  good  work  that  the 
community   around    you    will   appreciate,  —  not 
because  they  will  appreciate  it,  but  because  their 
appreciation  and  sympathy  will  enable  you  to  do 
good  in  other  spheres,  and  do  it  more  effectually. 

4.  Be   preeminent   in   your   consideration    and 
regard  for  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  labor  in  your 
own  circle,  even  the  rudest  and  humblest.     An 
abolitionist  who  hires  his  linen  made  up  at  the 
lowest  market  rate,  and  pays  his  wash-woman  in 
proportion,  will  do  little  good  to  the  anti-slavery 
or  any  other  philanthrophic  cause.     The  man  of 
liberal  culture  and  generous  heart  who  unostenta- 
tiously tries  to  elevate  the  most  depressed  to  his 
own  level,  is  doing  a  good  work  against  slavery, 
however  unconsciously. 

5.  Have  faith,  with  a  divine  patience ;  man  is 
privileged  to  labor  for  a  good  cause,  but  the  glory 
of  its  success  must  redound  to  his  Maker.     Next 
to  a  great  defeat,  the  most  fatal  event  for  slavery 
would  be  a  great  triumph.     Doubtless,  the  bolts 
are  now  forging  in  some  celestial  armory  destined 
to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of  the  bond- 
man, and  cleanse  the  land  from  the  foulest  and 
blackest  iniquity  ever  organized  and  legalized  in 
the  Christian  world.    The  shout  of  deliverance  may 
come  when  it  is  least  expected,  —  nay,  the  very 
means  employed  to  render  its  coming  impossible, 
will  probably  secure  and  hasten  it.     For  that  and 
every  other  needed  reform,  let  the  humane  and 
hopeful  strive,  not  despairing  in  the  densest  mid- 


80          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

night,  and  realizing  that  the  darkest  hour  is  often 
that  preceding  the  dawn.  Let  them,  squandering 
no  opportunity,  and  sacrificing  no  principle, 

"Learn  to  labor,  and  to  wait." 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          81 


THE  GREAT  EMANCIPATION. 


BEAUTIFUL  and  happy  will  this  world  be,  when 
slavery  and  every  other  form  of  oppression  shall 
have  ceased.  But  this  change  can  be  produced 
only  by  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  Reliance  on 
any  other  power  to  overthrow  slavery,  or  restore 
to  order  and  happiness  this  sin-crazed  and  sin- 
ruined  world,  will  be  vain. 


PETERBORO',  SEPT.  22,  1852. 


82          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


ODE 

Sung  at  the  celebration  of  the  First  Anniversary  of  the  kidnap- 
ping, at  Boston,  of  Thomas  Sims,  a  fugitive  slave  :  —  the  kidnap- 
ping done  under  the  forms  of  law,  and  by  its  officers,  12  June 
1851.  The  deed  celebrated  at  the  Melodeon,  Boston,  12  June  1852. 


BY   REV.   JOHN   PIERPONT. 

SOULS  of  the  patriot  dead, 
On  Bunker's  height  who  bled  ! 

The  pile,  that  stands 
On  your  long-buried  bones,  — 
Those  monumental  stones,  — 
Should  not  suppress  the  groans, 

This  day  demands. 

For  Freedom  there  ye  stood  ; 
There  gave  the  earth  your  blood ; 

There  found  your  graves ; 
That  men  of  every  clime, 
Faith,  color,  tongue,  and  time, 
Might,  through  your  death  sublime, 

Never  be  slaves. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  83 

Over  your  bed,  so  low, 
Heard  ye  not,  long  ago, 

A  voice  of  power  * 
Proclaim  to  earth  and  sea, 
That,  where  ye  sleep,  should  be 
A  home  for  Liberty, 

Till  Time's  last  hour  ? 

Hear  ye  the  chains  of  slaves, 
Now  clanking  round  your  graves  ? 

Hear  ye  the  sound 
Of  that  same  voice,  that  calls 
From  out  our  Senate  halls,  f 
"  Hunt  down  those  fleeing  thralls. 

With  horse  and  hound ! " 

That  voice  your  sons  hath  swayed ! 
'Tis  heard,  and  is  obeyed! 

This  gloomy  day 
Tells  you  of  ermine  stained, 
Of  Justice'  name  profaned, 
Of  a  poor  bondman,  chained 
And  borne  away ! 

Over  Virginia's  Springs, 
Her  eagles  spread  their  wings, 
Her  Blue  Ridge  towers  :  — 

*  Daniel  Webster's  oration,  at  the  laying  the  corner-stone  of 
Bunker  Hill  Monument,  17  June  1825. 

t  Daniel  Webster's  speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  U.  S.  7  March 
1850. 


84          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

That  voice,*  —  once  heard  with  awe, 
Now  asks,  —  "  Who  ever  saw, 
Up  there,  a  higher  law 
Than  this  of  ours  ?  " 

Must  we  obey  that  voice  ? 
When  God,  or  man's  the  choice, 

Must  we  postpone 
HIM,  who  from  Sinai  spoke  ? 
Must  we  wear  slavery's  yoke  ? 
Bear  of  her  lash  the  stroke, 

And  prop  her  throne  ? 

Lashed  with  her  hounds,  must  we 
Run  down  the  poor,  who  flee 

From  Slavery's  hell? 
Great  God !  when  we  do  this. 
Exclude  us  from  thy  bliss ; 
At  us  let  angels  hiss, 

From  heaven  that  fell  L 


*  Daniel  Webster's  speech  at  the  Capron  Springs,  Virginia,  1851, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  85 


PASSAGES  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  A  SLAVE  WOMAN. 


BY   ANNIE   PARKER. 

"  THE  slaves  at  Oak  Grove  did  not  mourn  for 
poor  Elsie  when  she  died,"  said  aunt  Phillis,  con- 
tinuing her  narrative.  "  She  was  never  a  favorite, 
and  from  the  time  her  beauty  attracted  the  notice 
of  the  young  master,  and  he  began  to  pet  her,  she 
grew  prouder  and  prouder,  and  treated  the  other 
slaves  as  if  she  were  their  mistress,  rather  than 
their  equal.  They  hated  her  for  her  influence 
over  the  master,  and  she  knew  it,  and  that  made 
matters  worse  between  them. 

When  she  died  in  giving  birth  to  her  second 
child,  her  little  boy  and  I  were  the  only  ones  who 
felt  any  sorrow.  The  master  had  grown  tired  of 
her,  though  he  had  once  been  very  fond  of  her. 
Besides,  he  was  at  this  time  making  arrangements 
for  his  marriage  with  a  beautiful  Northern  lady,  so 
that  whatever  he  might  have  felt,  nobody  knew 
anything  about  it. 

Elsie  was  my  younger  sister.  I  loved  her 
dearly,  and  had  been  almost  as  proud  as  she  was 

8 


OD  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

of  her  remarkable  beauty.  Her  little  boy  was  very 
fond  of  his  mother,  and  she  doated  upon  him.  He 
mourned  and  mourned  for  her,  after  her  death,  till 
I  almost  thought  he  would  die  too.  He  was  a 
beautiful  boy,  and  at  that  time  looked  very  much 
like  his  father,  which  was  probably  the  reason  why 
the  master  sold  him,  before  he  brought  his  bride  to 
Oak  Grove. 

It  was  very  hard  for  me  to  part  with  poor  Elsie's 
little  boy.  But  the  master  chose  to  sell  him,  and 
my  tears  availed  nothing.  Zilpha,  Elsie's  infant, 
was  given  me  to  take  care  of  when  her  mother 
died,  and  with  that  I  was  obliged  to  be  content. 

Marion  Lee,  the  young  mistress,  was  very  beau- 
tiful, but  as  different  from  poor  Elsie  as  light  from 
darkness.  She  had  deep  blue  eyes,  with  long 
silken  lashes,  and  a  profusion  of  soft  brown  hair. 
She  always  made  me  think  of  a  half-blown  rose- 
bud, she  was  so  delicate  and  fair.  She  proved  a 
kind  and  gentle  mistress.  All  the  slaves  loved  her, 
as  well  they  might,  for  she  did  everything  in  her 
power  to  make  them  comfortable  and  happy. 

When  she  came  to  Oak  Grove,  she  chose  me  to 
be  her  waiting-maid.  Zilpha  and  I  occupied  a 
large  pleasant  room  next  to  her  dressing-room. 

She  made  a  great  pet  of  Zilpha.  No  one  ever 
told  her  that  she  was  her  husband's  child.  No 
one  would  have  dared  to  tell  her,  even  if  she  had 
not  been  too  much  beloved,  for  any  one  to  be 
willing  to  grieve  her,  as  the  knowledge  of  this  fact 
must  have  done. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          87 

In  due  time  she,  too,  had  a  little  girl,  beautiful 
like  herself.  Zilpha  was  delighted  with  the  baby. 
She  never  wearied  of  kissing  its  tiny  hands,  and 
talking  to  it  in  her  sweet  coaxing  tones.  Mrs. 
Lee  said  Zilpha  should  be  Ida's  little  maid.  The 
children,  accordingly,  grew  up  together,  and  when 
they  were  old  enough  to  be  taught  from  books, 
everything  that  Ida  learned,  Zilpha  learned  also. 

When  Zilpha  was  seventeen,  she  was  more 
beautiful  than  her  mother  had  ever  been,  and  she 
was  as  gentle  and  loving  as  Elsie  had  been  pas- 
sionate and  proud.  There  was  a  beautiful,  plead- 
ing look  in  her  large  dark  eyes,  when  she  lifted 
the  long  lashes  so  that  you  could  see  into  their 
clear  depths.  She  was  graceful  as  a  young  fawn, 
and  playful  as  a  kitten,  and  she  had  read  and 
studied  so  many  books,  that  I  thought  she  knew 
almost  as  much  as  the  master  himself. 

Mr.  Minturn  lived  at  Lilybank,  the  estate  join- 
ing Oak  Grove.  He  was  an  old  friend  of  Mr.  Lee, 
and  the  families  were  very  intimate.  About  this 
time  a  relative  of  Mrs.  .Minturn  died  at  the  far 
South,  and  left  her  a  large  number  of  slaves.  I 
do  n't  know  how  they  were  all  disposed  of,  but  one 
of  the  number,  a  very  handsome  young  man, 
married  Jerry,  was  brought  to  Lilybank,  and 
became  Mr.  Minturn' s  coachman.  He  was  con- 
sidered a  great  prize,  for  he  had  a  large  muscular 
frame,  and  was  capable  of  enduring  a  great  amount 
of  bodily  fatigue.  He  was,  also,  for  a  slave,  very 
intelligent,  and  from  being  at  first  merely  the 


88  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

.coachman,  he  soon  became  the  confidential  ser- 
vant of  his  mastert 

Owing  to  the  intimacy  between  the  heads  of 
-the  two  families,  the  young  people  of  both  were 
much  together.  Ida  often  spent  whole  days  at 
Lilybank,  and  as  Zilpha  always  accompanied  her, 
-she  had  ample  opportunity  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  new  man  Jerry. 

It  so  happened  that  I,  being  more  closely  con- 
fined by  my  duties  at  home,  had  never  seen  Jerry, 
when  in  the  summer  following  his  coming  to  Lily- 
bank,  Mrs.  Lee  went  to  visit  her  friends  at  the 
North,  and  took  me  with  her.  Ida  and  Zilpha 
remained  at  home.  We  were  gone  three  months. 
A  few  days  after  our  return,  Zilpha  told  me  that 
she  was  soon  to  be  married  to  Jerry.  The  poor 
child  was  very  happy.  She  had  evidently  given 
him  her  whole  heart.  We  talked  long  that  day, 
for  I  wanted  to  know  how  it  had  been  brought 
about,  and  she  told  me  all,  with  the  simplicity  and 
artlessness  of  a  child.  They  had  felt  great  anxiety 
lest  their  masters  should  oppose  the  marriage. 
But  that  fear  was  removed.  Mr.  Lee  had  himself 
proposed  it,  and  Mr.  Minturn  gladly  consented.  I 
rejoiced  to  see  my  darling  so  happy,  and  felt  truly 
thankful  to  God  that  the  warm  love  of  her  heart 
had  not  been  blighted. 

That  same  evening  Jerry  came  to  see  Zilpha. 
She  called  me  immediately,  for  I  had  never  seen 
Jiim,  and  she  wished  us  to  meet.  The  moment  I 
looked  upon  his  face,  I  knew  he  was  my  poor 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  89 

Elsie's  son.  I  grew  sick  and  faint,  and  thought  I 
should  have  fallen. 

Zilpha  made  me  sit  down,  and  brought  me  a  glass 
of  water,  wondering  all  the  time,  poor  thing,  what 
had  made  me  ill  so  suddenly.  I  soon  recovered 
sufficiently  to  remember  that  I  must  not  betray 
the  cause  of  my  agitation.  I  did  not  speak  much, 
but  watched  Jerry's  face  as  closely  as  I  could, 
without  arresting  their  attention.  Every  moment 
strengthened  the  conviction  that  my  suspicion  was 
correct.  There  was  the  same  proud  look  that 
Elsie  had,  the  same  flashing  eye,  and  slightly  curl- 
ed lip,  and  when  he '  carelessly  brushed  back  the 
hair  from  his  forehead,  I  saw  a  scar  upon  it,  which 
I  knew  was  caused  by  a  fall  but  a  little  while 
before  his  mother  died.  O  God !  I  thought,  what 
will  become  of  my  darling  child ! 

I  soon  left  the  room,  on  the  pretence  that  my 
mistress  wanted  me,  but  really  that  I  might  shut 
myself  into  my  own  room  and  think.  I  did  not 
close  my  eyes  that  night,  and  when  the  morning 
dawned,  I  was  as  far  as  ever  from  knowing  what 
I  ought  to  do.  At  last  I  resolved  to  see  the  mas- 
ter as  early  as  I  could,  and  tell  him  all. 

After  breakfast  I  went  to  the  library  to  fetch 
a  book  for  my  mistress,  and  found  the  master  there. 
He  was  reading,  but  looked  up  as  I  entered,  and 
said  kindly,  "  What  do  you  wish  for,  Phillis  ?  "  I 
named  the  book  my  mistress  wanted.  He  told 
me  where  it  was.  I  took  it  from  the  shelf,  and 
stood  with  it  in  my  hand.  The  opportunity  which 
8* 


90          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

I  desired  had  come,  but  I  trembled  from  head  to 
foot,  and  had  no  power  to  speak.  I  do  n't  know 
how  I  ever  found  words  to  tell  him  that  Jerry  was 
his  own  child.  I  tried,  afterwards,  to  remember 
what  I  said,  but  I  could  not  recall  a  word.  He 
turned  deadly  pale,  and  sat  for  some  minutes 
silent.  At  length  in  a  low,  husky  voice,  he  said, 
"  You  will  not  be  likely  to  speak  of  this,  and  it  is 
well,  for  it  must  hot  be  known.  I  shall  satisfy 
myself  if  what  you  have  told  me  is  true.  If  I  find 
that  it  is,  I  shall  know  what  to  do.  You  may  go." 

I  took  the  book  to  my  mistress,  and  was  sent  by 
her  to  find  Zilpha.  She  was  in  the  garden  with 
Ida,  and  when  I  called  her,  shfe  came  bounding 
towards  me  with  such  a  bright,  happy  face,  that 
I  could  scarcely  restrain  my  tears.  Zilpha  was  a 
beautiful  reader.  She  often  read  aloud  to  her  mis- 
tress, by  the  hour  together.  I  liked  to  take  my 
sewing  and  sit  with  them  at  such  times,  but  that 
day  I  was  glad  to  shut  myself  up  alone  in  my 
room. 

The  next  day  the  master  sent  for  me  to  the 
library.  "  It  is  true,  Phillis,"  he  said  to  me, 
"Jerry  is  without  doubt  poor  Elsie's  child."  If 
an  arrow  had  pierced  my  heart  at  that  moment,  I 
could  not  have  felt  worse,  for  though  I  had 
thought  I  was  sure  it  was  so,  all  the  while  a  hope 
was  lingering  in  my  heart  that  I  was  mistaken. 
I  did  not  speak,  and  the  master  seeing  how  I  trem- 
bled, kindly  told  me  to  sit  down,  and  went  on  ;  "I 
did  not  see  Jerry  myself,  he  said,  Mr.  Minturn 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          91 

made  all  necessary  inquiries  for  me.  Jerry  remem- 
bers his  mother,  and  describes  her  in  a  way  that 
admits  of  no  mistake.  He  remembers,  too,  that  a 
gentleman  used  sometimes  to  visit  his  mother,  who 
took  a  great  deal  of  notice  of  him,  and  would 
let  him  sit  upon  his  lap  and  play  with  his  watch 
seals.  His  mother  used  to  be  very  happy  when 
this  gentleman  came,  and  when  he  went  away  she 
"would  almost  smother  the  little  boy  with  kisses, 
and  talk  to  him  of  his  papa.  I  offered  to  buy 
Jerry,  but  Mr.  Minturn  would  not  part  with  him. 
If  he  would  have  consented,  I  might  easily  have 
disposed  of  the  whole  matter." 

A  horrible  fear  took  possession  of  me  at  these 
words.  Would  he  dare  to  sell  my  darling  Zilpha  ? 
The  thought  almost  maddened  me.  Scarce  know- 
ing what  I  did,  I  threw  myself  on  my  knees  before 
him,  and  begged  him  not  to  think  a  second  time 
of  selling  his  own  flesh  and  blood.  He  angrily 
bade  me  rise,  and  not  meddle  with  that  in  which  I 
had  no  concern.  That  he  had  a  right,  which  he 
should  exercise,  to  do  what  he  would  with  his 
own.  He  had  thought  it  proper,  he  said,  to  tell 
me  what  I  had  just  heard,  but  charged  me  never 
again  to  name  the  subject  to  any  living  being,  and 
not  to  let  any  one  suspect  from  my  appearance  that 
anything  unusual  had  occurred.  With  this 'he 
dismissed  me. 

What  I  suffered  during  that  dreadful  week,  is 
known  only  to  God.  I  could  neither  eat  nor 
sleep.  It  seemed  to  me  I  should  lose  my  reason. 


92          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

Jerry  came  once  to  Oak  Grove,  but  I  would  not 
see  him.  Zilpha  I  avoided  as  much  as  possible. 
I  could  not  bear  to  look  upon  her  innocent  happi- 
ness, knowing  as  I  did  that  it  would  soon  be 
changed  into  unspeakable  misery. 

The  first  three  days  the  master  was  away  from 
home.       On    Thursday   he    returned.       When    I 
chanced  to  meet  him,  he  looked  uneasy ;  and  if  he 
came  to  his  wife's  room  and  found  me  with  her,  * 
he  would  make  some  excuse  for  sending  me  away. 

Saturday  was  a  beautiful  bright  October  day, 
and  Ida  proposed  to  Zilpha  that  they  should  take 
their  books  and  spend  the  forenoon  in  the  woods. 
They  went  off  in  high  spirits.  I  thought  I  had 
never  seen  my  Zilpha  look  so  lovely.  Love  and 
happiness  had  added  a  softer  grace  to  her  whole 
being.  I  followed  them  to  the  door,  and  she  kis- 
sed me  twice  before  leaving  me ;  then  looking  back, 
when  she  had  gone  a  little  way,  and  seeing  me 
still  standing  there,  she  threw  a  kiss  to  me  with 
her  little  hand,  and  looked  so  bright  and  joyous, 
that  my  aching  heart  felt  a  new  pang  of  sorrow. 
What  was  it  whispered  to  me  then  that  I  should 
never  see  her  again  ? 

I  went  back  to  my  work,  and  presently  the  mas- 
ter came  and  asked  for  Ida.  He  wished  her  to 
ride  with  him.  I  told  him  where  she  was,  and  he 
went  in  search  of  her.  Zilpha  did  not  come  back 
with  them.  "  We  told  her  to  stay  if  she  wished," 
Ida  said.  But  my  heart  misgave  me.  I  should 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  V6 

at  once  have  gone  in  search  of  her,  but  Mrs.  Lee 
wanted  me,  and  I  could  not  go. 

I  cannot  bear,  even  now,  to  recall  the  events  of 
that  day.  My  worst  fears  were  realized.  During 
my  master's  absence,  he  had  sold  my  darling  to  a 
Southern  trader,  who  only  waited  a  favorable 
opportunity  to  take  her  away  without  the  know- 
ledge of  the  family.  He  had  been  that  morning 
with  Mr.  Lee,  and  was  in  the  house  when  Mr. 
Lee  returned  with  Ida  from  the  woods. 

I  do  n't  know  how  the  master  ever  satisfied 
his  wife  and  Ida  about  Zilpha's  disappearance. 
There  was  a  report  that  she  had  run  away.  But 
I  do  n't  think  they  believed  it.  Certainly  /  never 
did. 

I  almost  forgot  my  own  sorrow  when  I  saw 
how  poor  Jerry  felt  when  he  knew  what  had  hap- 
pened. Of  course  he  did  not  know  what  I  did. 
He  never  knew  why  Zilpha  was  sent  away,  but  he 
knew  she  was  sold,  and  that  there  was  little  reason 
to  hope  he  should  ever  see  her  again.  He  went 
about  his  work  as  usual,  but  there  was  a  look  in 
his  eye  which  made  one  tremble. 

Before  many  days  he  was  missing,  and  though 
his  master  searched  the  country,  and  took  every 
possible  means  to  find  him,  he  could  discover  no 
trace  of  the  fugitive.  I  felt  satisfied  he  had  fol- 
lowed the  North  Star,  but  I  said  nothing,  and  was 
glad  the  poor  fellow  had  gone  from  what  would 
constantly  remind  him  of  Zilpha. 


94          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

During  the  following  winter,  Mrs.  Lee  had  a  dan- 
gerous illness.  I  watched  over  her  night  and  day, 
and  when  she  recovered,  my  master  was  so  grate- 
ful for  what  I  had  done,  that  he  gave  me  my  free- 
dom, and  money  enough  to  bring  me  to  the  North. 

Of  Zilpha's  fate  I  have  been  able  to  learn 
nothing.  I  can  only  leave  her  with  God,  who 
though  his  vengeance  is  long  delayed,  hears  and 
treasures  up  every  sigh  and  tear  of  his  poor  slave- 
children. 

I  saw,  a  few  days  since,  a  man  who  knows  Jerry. 
He  is  living  not  many  miles  from  me,  and  I  shall 
try  to  see  him  before  I  die.  But  I  shall  never  tell 
him  the  whole  extent  of  the  wrongs  he  suffered 
in  slavery. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


95 


STORY   TELLING. 


BY   ANNIE   PARKER. 


THE  winter  wind  blew  cold,  and  the  snow  was 

falling  fast, 
But  within  the  cheerful  parlor  none  listened  to  the 

blast ; 
The  fire  was  blazing  brightly,  and  soft  lamps  their 

radiance  shed 
On  rare  and  costly  pictures,  and  many  a  fair  young 

head. 

The  father  in  the  easy  chair,  to  his  youngest  nest- 
ling dove, 

Whispered  a  wondrous  fairy  tale,  such  as  all  chil- 
dren love ; 

Brothers  and  sisters  gathered  round,  and  the  eye 
might  clearly  trace 

A  happiness  too  deep  for  words,  on  the  mother's 
lovely  face. 


96          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

And  when  the  fairy  tale  was  done,  the  blue-eyed 

Ella  said, 
"  Mama,  please  tell  a  story,  too,  before  we  go  to 

bed, 

And  let  it  be  a  funny  one,  such  as  I  like  to  hear, 
<  Red    Riding    Hood,'  or  '  The    Three   Bears,'  or 

«  Chicken  Little-dear.' " 

A  smile  beamed  on  the  mother's  face,  as  the  little 

prattler  spoke, 
And  kissing  her  soft,  rosy  cheek,  she  thus  the  silence 

broke, 
"  I  will  tell  you,  my  own  darlings,  a  story  that  is 

true, 
Of  a  little  Southern  maiden,  with  a  skin  of  sable 

hue. 

"  Xariffe,  her  mother  called  her,  a  child  of  beauty 
rare, 

With  soft  gazelle-like  eyes,  and  curls  of  dark  and 
shining  hair, 

A  fairy  form  of  perfect  grace,  and  such  artless  win- 
ning ways 

That  none  who  saw  her,  e'er  could  fail  her  loveli- 
ness to  praise. 

"  She  sported   mid  the  orange-groves  in  gleeful, 

careless  play, 
And  her  mother,  as  she  gazed  on  her,  in  agony 

would  pray, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          97 

'  My  Father,  God !  be  merciful !  my  cherished  dar- 
ling save 

From  the  curse  whose  sum  of  bitterness  is  to  be  a 
female  slave.' " 

"  God  heard  her  prayer,  but  often  He  in  wisdom 
doth  withhold 

The  boon  we  crave,  that  we  may  be  pure  and  re- 
fined like  gold ; 

And  the  mother  saw  Xariffe  grow  in  loveliness  and 
grace, 

Till  the  roses  of  five  summers  blushed  in  beauty 
on  her  face. 

"  At  length,  one  day,  one  sunny  day,  when  earth 
and  heaven  were  bright, 

The  mother  to  her  daily  toil  went  forth  at  morning 
light; 

At  evening,  when  her  task  was  done,  —  how  can 
the  tale  be  told  ? 

She  came  back  to  her  empty  hut,  to  find  her  dar- 
ling sold. 

"  Come  nearer,  my  own  precious  ones,  your  soft 
white  arms  entwine 

Around  my  neck,  and  kiss  me  close,  sweet  Ella, 
daughter  mine ; 

Five  years  in  beauty  thou  hast  bloomed,  of  my 
happy  life  a  part, 

Oh,  God!  I  guess  the  anguish  of  that  lone  slave- 
mother's  heart, 

9 


98          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

•"  Now,  darlings,  go  and  kiss  papa,  and  whisper 
your  good-night, 

Then  hasten  to  your  little  beds,  and  sleep  till  morn- 
ing light ; 

But  oh !  before  you  close  your  eyes,  God's  care 
and  blessing  crave, 

On  the  saddest  of  His  children,  that  poor  heart- 
broken slave." 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          99 


THE   MAN-OWNER. 


A  FRIEND  of  mine,  on  the day  of , 

18 — ,  (the  dates  it  is  unnecessary  to  specify,) 
became  the  owner  of  a  man.  He  had  never  owned 
one  before ;  and  he  has  had  so  much  trouble  with 
him,  that  I  doubt  if  he  will  ever  allow  himself  to 
become  owner  of  one  again.  My  friend  is  not  a 
Southerner;  yet  the  circumstances  by  which  so 
singular  a  dispensation  fell  to  him,  it  is  unneces- 
sary for  me  to  recount.  I  will  briefly  describe  the 
master  and  the  man,  and  show  how  they  succeeded 
in  their  relationship. 

The  master  was  wholly  respectable  in  his  life 
and  character ;  endowed  with  good  sense ;  well 
enough  off  in  the  world,  able  to  hire  service,  if  he 
needed,  and  to  pay  for  it :  his  temper  not  bad, 
though  sometimes  irritable ;  —  he  could  be  pro- 
voked as  others  can.  He  had  strong  passions, 
and  sometimes  in  the  course  of  his  life  they  had 
got  the  better  of  him,  and  had  led  him  to  conduct 
which,  in  the  coolness  of  his  mind,  he  bitterly 
repented.  Circumstances  might  have  made  a  bad 


100          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

man  of  him.  The  instructions  which  he  received 
in  his  childhood,  the  example  of  his  parents,  the 
respectable  neighborhood  in  which  he  resided,  the 
church  which  he  attended,  all  had  a  favorable  in- 
fluence upon  hirn.  So  he  became  a  man  of  prin- 
ciple. He  had  not,  indeed,  the  highest  princi- 
ples ;  he  was  no  hero ;  he  was  not  disposed  to 
make  himself  a  martyr.  His  religion  was  no 
other  than  the  common  religion  of  the  church  to 
which  he  was  attached,  and  it  demanded  no  pecu- 
liar sacrifice  of  him.  He  was  a  member  of  one 
of  the  leading  political  parties,  and  did  his  full 
duty  in  maintaining  its  cause.  He  called  him- 
self a  patriot,  however,  not  a  partizan  ;  and  talk- 
ed ever  of  his  country,  as  the  highest  exemplifi- 
cation of  the  great  principles  of  liberty,  and  con- 
sidered the  success  of  our  institutions  as  the  hope 
of  humanity.  Yet  he  loved  his  country,  —  not 
his  race.  He  was  not  without  charity  to  the  poor ; 
and  was  not  unwilling  to  see  them,  individually, 
rising  above  destitution.  .Yet  he  did  not  like  to 
associate  with  men  lower  in  the  social  scale  than 
himself;  but  had  an  ambition  that  impelled  him 
to  court  the  society  of  those  whose  station  and 
influence  were  superior  to  his  own.  Nor  did  he 
care  for,  or  believe  in,  any  suggestions  or  plans, 
the  object  of  which  was  the  elevation  of  the  poor 
as  a  class,  and  the  levelling  upwards  of  the  hu- 
man race.  He  thought  that  as  a  divine  authority 
has  declared  to  us,  "  ye  have  the  poor  with  you 
always,"  it  was  ordained  that  we  should  always 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          101 

have  them,  —  that  they  were  an  exceedingly  use- 
ful class,  as  a  foundation  in  society,  that  the  pros- 
perous men  of  the  world  could  not  do  without 
them,  and  that  it  was  not  best  to  give  them  too 
much  hope  of  rising. 

Perhaps  you  will  say  I  have  given  you  no  very 
definite  description  of  him.  You  will  think,  per- 
haps, were  I  called  to  write  of  him  again,  I  might, 
at  once,  better  make  use  of  the  words  of  the  poet, 

The  annals  of  the  human  race, 
Their  ruins,  since  the  world  began, 

Of  him  afford  no  other  trace 
Than  this,  —  THERE  LIVED  A  MAN  ! 

I  fear,  however,  that  I  shall  be  unable  to  be 
more  particular  in  my  description  of  the  servant ; 
It  is  said,  "  like  master,  like  man,"  and,  indeed, 
leaving  out  the  expressions  above,  which  show  the 
relationship  of  the  master  to  the  community  and 
the  church,  the  description  of  temper  and  of 
general,  moral,  and  religious  principle,  would 
answer  to  be  repeated  now.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
the  man  was  not  bad ;  that  is,  not  thoroughly  bad. 
He  cherished  no  secret  desire  for  liberty.  His 
master  had  no  real  fear  of  his  attempting  to  escape. 
He  loved  his  master ;  and  some  thought,  who  did 
not  wholly  know  him,  that  never  slave  loved  a 
master  with  more  fondness  and  devotion.  Yet  I 
know  that  he  was  often  disobedient.  Passages,  — 
not  of  arms,  —  but  of  ill-temper,  of  reproach,  and 
of  insolence,  not  unfrequently  occurred  between 
them.  High  words  were  used,  hard  looks  and 
9* 


102         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

moody  oftener  still,  perhaps,  yet  the  master  never 
struck  his  servant,  nor  did  the  servant  ever  offer 
violence  towards  his  master.  But  at  times,  they 
would  have  been  very  glad  to  part  companv,  if 
the  one  could  have  easily  escaped,  or  the  other 
could  have  made  out  to  do  without  him.  Much 
of  the  disobedience  which  gave  serious  offence  to 
the  master,  was  the  result  of  inadvertence.  Lessons, 
the  most  frequently  enjoined, were  forgotten;  they 
were  not  always  listened  to  with  an  obedient 
mind.  Years  long  the  master  required  this  or  that 
service  from  day  to  day,  and  yet  the  command  was 
not  once  a  year,  I  may  say,  attended  to.  Always 
th«  master  was  saying,  —  "to-morrow  I  shall  turn 
'over  a  new  leaf  with  him  ; "  but  he  had  not  energy 
•enough  to  carry  his  purpose  into  effect.  He  intend- 
•ed  to  give  his  servant  at  least  some  moral  educa- 
tion, to  teach  him  self-control,  to  prevent  his  bursts 
of  passion,  not  by  the  infliction  of  punishment,  but 
by  a  true  moral  discipline ;  yet  the  work  was 
always  delayed,  and  never  accomplished.  You 
will  say,  the  master  had  himself  some  idle  fancies 
that  he  ought  not  to  have  indulged,  and  that  a 
severer  course  would  have  been  more  successful. 
But  he  was  one  of  those  who  doubt  the  advan- 
tages and  shrink  from  the  application  of  severity, 
and  he  would  have  been  no  more  prompt  and 
resolute  and  persevering  with  his  servant  than 
with  himself. 

At  the  commencement,  I  seemed  to  promise  a 
story.     But  all  my  narrative  is  closed  with  a  word 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM;          103 

more.  The  master  was  at  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
when  he  came  into  possession  of  his  man.  The 
connection  will  never  be  dissolved,  except,  at  least, 
by  death.  Indeed,  reader,  if  you  have  not  already 
seen  it,  master  and  man  were  but  one  and  the 
same  person. 

And  this  is  the  moral  of  my  little  fiction.  Who 
will  believe  that  a*ny  man  ought  to  have  the  own- 
ership of  another,  when  it  is  so  rare  to  find  one  of 
us  wholly  competent  to  govern  and  to  own  him- 
self? Nay,  the  better  a  man  is,  and  the  more 
qualified  to  direct  and  to  govern  others  with  abso- 
lute sway,  the  less  is  he  willing  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  the  disposal  of  them,  —  but  see- 
ing his  own  unfitness  for  the  office  of  lord,  even 
of  himself,  he  prays,  not  that  he  may  be  a  master 
of  others,  but  himself  a  servant  of  God. 


CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  OCT.,  1852. 


104         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


DAMASCUS    IN    1851. 

• 


No  city  has  been  more  variously  described  than 
Damascus,  because  none  has  more  contrasted  fea- 
tures. A  spruce  Yankee,  hearing  "  Silk  Bucking- 
ham's" description  of  his  "  Paradise,"  and  seeing 
merely  narrow,  half-paved,  mat-covered  streets, 
and  dirty,  mud-walled  buildings,  would  prefer  his 
native  "  Slabtown"  to  the  "  most  refreshing  scene 
in  all  our  travels."  And  yet  Damascus  is  one  of 
the  wonders  of  the  world,  unrivalled  in  what  is 
peculiarly  its  own,  admitting  no  comparison  with 
any  existing  city,  revelling  in  a  beauty  and  a  splen- 
dor belonging  to  Islamism  more  than  Christianity, 
characterizing  the  age  of  the  Caliphs  rather  than 
of  the  Crystal  Palace. 

In  antiquity  it  has  no  rival.  Nineveh,  Babylon, 
Palmyra,  its  contemporaries,  have  wholly  perished ; 
while  this  oldest  inhabited  place  has  lost  none  of  its 
population,  yielded  none  of  its  local  preeminence, 
abandoned  but  one  of  the  arts  for  which  it  was  so 
renowned,  and  taken  not  a  tinge  of  European 
thought,  worship,  life.  It  numbers  not  far  from 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         105 

one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls,  of  whom 
twenty  thousand  may  be  Greek  and  Armenian 
Christians.  It  lies  in  an  exquisite  garden  at  the 
foot  of  Anti-Lebanon,  in  a  plain  of  inexhaustible 
fertility,  watered  by  innumerable  brooklets  from 
those  ancient  streams  "  Abana  and  Pharphar," 
and  shut  in  by  vast  groves  of  walnut  and  poplar, 
a  "verdurous  wall  of  Paradise,"  which  are  all  that 
the  traveller  sees  for  hours  as  he  draws  near  the 
city  of  "  Abraham's  steward." 

Originally  the  seat  of  a  renowned  kingdom,  and 
once  the  capital  of  the  Saracen  empire,  it  is  now 
the  centre  of  an  Ottoman  Pashalik,  but  virtually 
the  metropolis  of  Syria,  as  it  was  in  the  earliest 
time.  Miss  Martineau  and  some  others  carelessly 
give  it  a  length  of  seven  miles ;  but  the  real  extent 
of  the  city -walls  in  any  one  direction  is  not  more 
than  two.  The  gardens  and  groves  around,  how- 
ever, take  the  same  name,  and  are  over  twenty 
miles  in  circuit,  of  a  studied,  picturesque  wildness, 
shaded  lanes*,  running  side  by  side  with  merry 
brooks,  the  whole  overshadowed  by  the  deepest 
forest,  and  forming  delicious  relief  from  the  sun- 
burnt plains  of  Syria.  Besides  the  walnut,  so 
much  prized  for  its  fruit  all  through  the  East,  and 
the  poplar,  the  main  dependence  for  building,  the 
famous  damson,  or  Damascene  plum,  abounds  the 
citron,  orange,  and  pomegranate  spread  their  fruit 
around  the  vine  is  everywhere  seen,  and  only  three 
miles  off  stands  the  forest  of  damask  rose-trees 
whence  the  most  delicious  attar  is  made.  But  a 


106         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

genuine  American  will  prefer  the  walnut-tree  to 
all  others,  because  of  its  freedom  of  growth,  mas- 
siveness  of  trunk,  depth  of  shade,  and  impressive 
reminiscence  of  home.  These  trees,  together  with 
the  mulberry,  do  very  much  for  the  commerce  of 
the  city.  But,  indeed,  Damascus  is  the  chief  depot 
of  manufactures  for  Syria.  Silk  goods  cannot  be 
bought  to  such  advantage  elsewhere,  nor  of  such 
antique  patterns,  nor  of  genuine  "  damask  "  colors. 
The  business  has  suffered  somewhat  of  late, 
because  Turkish  husbands  discovering  that  Eng- 
lish prints  are  so  much  cheaper,  and  their  wives 
fancying  the  flowing  calicoes  to  be  so  much  pret- 
tier than  the  patterns  which  their  grandmothers 
wore,  foreign  goods  are  supplanting  the  domestic ; 
and  a  macadamized  road  is  contemplated  from  the 
city  to  its  seaport  Beiroot,  whose  effect  would  be 
to  make  British  and  French  manufactures  still 
more  common,  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  give  free 
circulation  to  the  handicraft  of  Damascus.  As  at 
Constantinople,  Cairo,  and  elsewhere,  each  trade 
occupies  its  own  quarter,  the  jewellers,  pipe- 
makers,  silk-dealers,  grocers,  saddlers,  having  each 
their  exclusive  neighborhood ;  none  of  the  Bazars 
are  such  noble  edifices  as  cluster  around  the 
mosque  of  St.  Sophia ;  and  in  the  xainy  season 
(that  is,  during  their  winter)  the  pavement  is  so 
wretched  and  slippery,  and  such  a  mass  of  mud 
and  water  oozes  down  from  the  rotten  awnings^ 
that  one  does  no  justice  to  the  unequalled  richness 
of  some  of  the  fabrics  and  the  grandeur  of  some  of 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          107 

the  khans.  One  traveller  informs  the  public  that 
there  is  a  grand  "  Bazar  for  wholesale  business"  of 
variegated  black  and  white  marble,  "  surmounted 
by  an  ample  dome,"  with  a  lively  fountain  in 
the  centre.  There  are  thirty -one  such  buildings, 
which  we  should  call  Exchanges,  bearing  each  the 
name  of  the  Sultan  who  erected  them.  Those 
that  I  visited  were  contiguous  to  the  only  street 
which  wears  a  name  in  the  East,  and  that  name, 
familiar  to  us  in  the  book  of  Acts,  "  Strait,"  Dritto, 
as  your  guide  mumbles  the  word,  a  long  avenue 
containing  the  only  hotel  in  the  city. 

An  oriental  peculiarity  which  makes  the  large 
towns  exceedingly  interesting  is,  that  every  occupa- 
tion is  carried  on  out  of  doors,  and  right  under 
your  eyes  as  you  stroll  along.  Here  the  silk  web 
is  stretched  upon  the  outside  wall  of  some  ex- 
tended building ;  here  the  butcher  is  dressing  the 
meat,  perhaps  for  your  dinner,  right  upon  the  side- 
walk ;  and  here  a  sort  of  extempore  sausage  is 
cooking,  so  that  one  might  almost  eat  it  as  he 
walks,  a  capital  idea  for  hasty  eaters,  and  a  very 
nice  article  in  its  way.  There  is  no  other  part  of 
the  world  where  so  much  cooking  is  to  be  seen  all 
the  while,  and  such  loads  of  sweetmeats  gladden 
the  eyes  of  childhood,  and  such  luscious  compounds, 
scented  with  attar,  spread  temptation  before  every 
sense.  The  business  of  "  El-Shans"  might  almost 
be  headed  by  the  five  hundred  public  bakers, 
though  the  silk  is  still  the  principal  manufacture, 
and  there  are  reported  to  be  seven  hundred  and 


108          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

jj 

forty-eight  dealers  in  damask,  thirty-four  silk-wind- 
ers, one  hundred  silk  dyers,  and  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  weavers  of  the  same  article. 

The  famous  'Damascus  blades  are  nothing  but 
.an  "  antiquity"  now,  —  they  are  uniformly  called  so 
by  the  people,  were  offered  to  our  purchase  in  very 
small  quantities  by  persons  who  knew  nothing  of 
their  manufacture,  at  exorbitant  prices,  and  in 
very  uncouth  forms.  They  appeared  to  be  curiosi- 
ties to- them,  as  they  certainly  were  to  us,  and  are 
said  to  be  sometimes  manufactured  in  England. 
A  mace,  offered  for  sale  among  these  scimetars  of 
wavy  steel,  smacked  of  the  Crusaders'  time,  and 
was  richly  inlaid  with  gold ;  the  fire-arms,  or  blun- 
derbusses, were  grotesque  and  unwieldy,  richly 
.moun  ed,  and  gorgeously  ornamented. 

An  attempt  is  making  in  certain  quarters  to  per- 
suade the  civilized  world  that  Turkey  has  still 
some  military  power.  Of  this  almost  imperial 
city  the  citadel  is  but  a  mass  of  ruins.  Count 
Guy  on,  a  confederate  general  with  Kossuth,  and 
now  a  Turkish  Pasha  and  drill-officer,  assured  us  it 
would  be  repaired  and  strengthened ;  but  the  city- 
walls  offer  no  defence  against  a  modern  army  ;  and 
the  Turkish  soldier,  notwithstanding  his  courage 
and  endurance,  cannot  be  bastinadoed  into  military 
science ;  neither  have  educated  Christian  officers,  like 
;Guyon,  any  real  influence.  I  frequently  saw  the 
sentinels  asleep  while  upon  duty,  and  recent 
experience  has  proved  them  incapable  of  standing 
before  a  far  smaller  amount  of  really  trained 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          109 
* 

troops.  Some  of  the  barracks  at  Damascus  are 
rather  the  finest  which  the  Sultan  possesses,  and 
among  the  best  in  the  world,  —  some,  too,  of  the 
military  exercises  are  pursued  with  a  creditable 
zeal,  —  but,  on  the  whole,  a  more  slatternly  corps 
of  men  was  never  seen,  nor  one  less  confident  in 
themselves. 

The  Christian  curiosities  of  this  oldest  of  in- 
habited cities,  begin  with  the  mosque  of  peculiar 
sanctity,  once  the  site  of  St.  John's  Cathedral, 
whose  chamber  of  relics,  containing  a  pretended 
head  of  the  Baptist,  is  inaccessible  even  to  Mussul- 
men,  the  priesthood  excepted.  Six  huge  Corin- 
thian columns,  once  a  part  of  its  proud  portico, 
are  built  into  houses  and  stores,  so  that  you  get 
but  faint  glimpses  of  their  beauty  and  size  until 
you  mount  the  flat  rnud-roof  of  the  modern  build- 
ings and  look  down  into  the  vast  area  of  the  tem- 
ple, six  hundred  and  fifty-feet  by  one  hundred  and 
fifty;  and  there  find  towering  above  you  these 
massive,  blackened  remains  of  Christian  architec- 
ture, —  significant  emblems  of  the  triumph  of  the 
Crescent  over  the  Cross,  —  and  yet  by  their  imper- 
ishableness  a  promise  of  renewed  glory  in  some 
brighter  future.  That  Islamism  is  hastening  to 
decay  is  shown  impressively  enough  in  the  grand 
dervish  mosque  and  khan,  once  quite  celebrated 
as  the  Syrian  enthronement  of  this  advanced 
guard  of  Mohammed ;  now  nothing  could  seem 
more  deserted,  one  minaret  is  threatening  to  fall, 
the  spacious  garden  is  all  weed-grown,  and  few 
10 


110  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

| 

are  left  to  mourn  over  the  reverse  :  these  banner- 
men  of  the  prophet,  no  longer  warriors,  students, 
and  apostles,  do  but  beg  their  bread  and  drone 
their  prayers,  and  exchange  the  reputation  of  fanat- 
ics for  that  of  hypocrites ;  they  are  in  fact  monks 
of  the  mosque,  like  their  brothers  in  celibacy, 
changing  sadly  enough  from  enthusiasm  to  for- 
mality, from  the  fervor  of  first  love  to  the  grave- 
like  dullness  of  an  exhausted  ritual. 

St.  Paul  is  of  course  the  great  name  at  Damas- 
cus ;  and  your  dragoman  is  very  certain  always  as 
to  the  place  where  he  was  lowered  down  the  city- 
wall  ;  then  he  takes  you  to  the  tomb  of  the  soldier 
who  befriended  him,  close  at  hand,  and  to  the  little 
underground  chapel  where  the  Apostle's  sight  was 
restored.  But  having  passed  in  turn  under  the 
sceptre  of  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Persian,  Jew, 
Roman,  Arabian,  Turk,  every  stone  of  these  build- 
ings could  tell  a  most  interesting  tale,  and  every 
timber  of  the  wall  could  answer  with  an  experi- 
ence corresponding  to  the  out-door  revolution. 

But  the  grand  attractions  in  this  "  Flower  of  the 
Levant  and  Florence  of  Turkey "  are  the  coffee- 
houses, and  the  palaces  of  the  rich.  The  writer 
of  Eothen,  I  think  it  is,  says,  "  there  is  one  coffee- 
house at  Damascus  capable  of  containing  a  hun- 
dred persons :"  a  Damascus  friend,  a  resident  clergy- 
man, carried  me  into  one  where  he  had  himself 
seen,  three  thousand  people  on  a  gala-day,  and 
several  where  hundreds  of  visitors  would  not  make 
a  crowd.  This  great  necessity  of  Turkish  life, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          Ill 

this  deliverance  from  the  loneliness  of  an  oriental 
home,  this  luxurious  substitute  for  the  daily  news- 
paper, is  carried  to  perfection  here.  First  of  all, 
comes  the  lofty  dome-covered  hall,  surrounded  by 
couches  like  beds,  enlivened  on  all  festivals  by  the 
Arabian  Improvisator  with  his  song  and  his  tale ; 
back  of  this  are  a  number  of  rude  arbors  interlaced 
with  noble  shade-trees,  and  watered  profusely  by 
nimble  brooks,  the  whole  lighted  every  night  by 
little  pale  lamps.  These  are  the  gossiping  places 
for  the  Damascene  gentlemen  ;  where  the  fragrant 
tche*bouque,  the  cool  narghilch,  or  water-pipe,  the 
delicious  coffee,  the  indolent  game  at  dominos, 
(I  never  saw  chess  played  at  the  east,)  is  relieved 
by  such  domestic  anecdotes  as,  according  to  my 
American  friend,  brand  the  domestic  life  of  the 
city  with  beastly  sensuality. 

One  would  fain  hope  that  these  are  the  preju- 
dices of  an  earnest  missionary, — but  until  the 
residence  of  years  had  given  familiarity  with  the 
language,  any  opinions  of  a  visitor  would  be 
erroneous  as  well  as  presuming.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, can  bring  back  so  powerfully  the  Arabian 
tales  of  enchantment  as  the  interior  of  the  wealthier 
Damascus  houses.  The  outside  is  always  mean 
and  forbidding.  You  have  sometimes  to  stoop 
under  the  rude,  low  gate ;  and  the  first  court,  sur- 
rounded only  by  servants'  rooms,  has  nothing  of 
interest.  But  the  second  and  third  quadrangles 
become  more  and  more  spacious,  and  are  always 
of  variegated  marble,  containing  a  perpetually 


112 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


playing  fountain,  overhung  by  the  orange,  the 
citron,  and  the  vine,  whose  fragrance  floats  dream- 
ily on  the  moist  air,  lulling  the  senses  to  repose. 
'The  grand  saloon  I  found  to  be  always  arranged 
pretty  much  the  same.  A  lower  part  of  the  pave- 
ment near  the  door,  is  the  place  of  deposit  for 
slippers,  shoes,  and  the  pattens  which  Damascus 
women  use  so  much  in  the  winter,  articles  all  of 
them  never  intended  for  ornament,  and  never  fitted 
to  the  foot,  but  worn  as  loose  as  possible,  and 
never  within  the  sitting-room,  but  simply  as  a  pro- 
tection from  out-door  wet  and  soil.  The  lower 
portion  of  the  room  and  its  rug-strewn  floor  are  of 
variegated  marbles,  then  comes  curiously  carved 
woods,  then  painted  stucco,  decorated  with  mirrors 
rising  to  the  distant  gay-colored  roof.  The  immense 
loftiness,  the  moist  coolness,  the  gorgeous  hues, 
the  emblazoned  texts  from  the  Koran,  the  sweet 
murmur  of  the  various  fountains,  the  fragrance  of 
the  orange  groves,  succeed  to  the  out-door  dreari- 
ness like  a  dream  of  Haroun  Al  Raschid  to  the 
wearied  pilgrim  on  desert  sands.  The  divan,  or 
wide  sofa,  on  three  sides  of  this  hall,  is  far  more 
agreeable  in  this  enervating  climate  than  any 
European  furniture ;  only,  in  winter,  as  the  ground 
underneath  is  permeated  by  leaky  clay  tubes  bear- 
ing the  waters  of  the  Barrady,  and  there  is  no 
•other  heating  apparatus  save  a  brazer  of  charcoal, 
one  is  sometimes  very  chilly,  and  is  tempted  to 
exchange  this  tomblike  dampness  for  a  cozy  corner 
;near  some  friendly  stove  or  familiar  fire-place. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          113 

But  the  general  impression  which  unintelligent 
strangers  carries  from  Damascus  is,  that  the  people 
have  what  they  want,  and  have  gone  wisely  to 
work  to  realize  their  idea  of  earthly  blessedness,  — 
an  indolent,  sensual,  dreamy  one  to  you,  but  in 
their  eyes  no  faint  type  of  the  Mussulman's 
heaven. 


CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 


10* 


114         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


RELIGIOUS,  MORAL,  AND  POLITICAL  DUTIES. 


is  morally  wrong,  cannot  be  made  prac- 
tically right.  The  laws  of  morality  are  taught  in 
the  Bible.  They  are  unchangeable  truths.  No 
sophistry,  no  expediency,  no  compromise  can  set 
them  aside. 

If  politics  is  the  science  of  government,  and  if 
civil  government  is  a  divine  institution,  intended 
to  protect  the  rights  of  all ;  if  "  an  injury  done  to 
the  meanest  subject,  is  an  injury  done  to  the 
whole  body ; "  and  if  "  rulers  must  be  just,  ruling 
in  the  fear  of  God,"  all  legislation  should  be  based 
on  moral  duty.  Any  enactments  that  have  not 
this  basis,  are,  in  the  Divine  sight,  null  and  void. 
If  man  is  endowed  by  nature  with  inalienable 
rights,  no  legislation  can  rightfully  wrest  them 
from  him.  Any  attempt  to  do  it,  is  an  infraction 
of  the  moral  law.  Our  religious,  moral,  and  polit- 
ical duties  are  identical  and  inseparable.  It  is  the 
*duty  of  all  Christian  legislators  so  to  act  now,  as 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          115 

they  know  all  must  act,  when  truth  and  right- 
eousness shall  have  a  universal  prevalence  on  the 
earth. 


C^£Z-i^rt/v^ 

^/     ^y 


116 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


WHY  SLAVERY  IS  IN  THE  CONSTITUTION. 


THAT  the  constitution  of  a  country  should  guide 
its  action  is  a  truism  which  none,  perhaps,  will  be 
inclined  to  controvert.  Indeed,  so  thoroughly  is 
this  sentiment  inwrought  into  us,  that  we  generally 
expect  practice  will  conform  to  the  constitution. 
But  does  not  this  subject  States  or  nations  to 
misapprehension  by  others  ?  South  Carolina,  for 
instance,  abolishes  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  with 
regard  to  the  colored  people,  and  imprisons  them, 
although  citizens  of  the  other  States,  when  they 
enter  her  borders  in  any  way.  Now  these  are 
direct  violations  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  so  direct,  that  they  cannot  be  explained 
away.  Nor  do  we  think  that  South  Carolina 
even  attempts  it.  She  openly  says,  that  it  is 
owing  to  the  existence  of  slavery  among  them, 
that  the  free  colored  man,  coming  into  contact 
with  the  slaves,  will  taint  them  with  notions  of 
liberty  which  will  make  them  discontented,  —  that 
therefore  her  own  preservation,  the  first  law  of 
nature,  requires  her  to  do  everything  she  can  to 
keep  the  disturbing  force  out  of  her  limits,  even  if 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         117 

she  have  to  violate  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.  This  she  asserts,  too,  when,  at  the  forma- 
tion of  the  constitution,  she  was  one  of  the  large 
slave-holding  States,  —  when  she  had  before  her  the 
example  of  every  nation  that  had  practised  slavery, 
and  when  now  her  senators  and  representatives  in 
Congress  are  sworn  to  support  the  constitution  of 
the  Union.  Thus  we  see  that  it  would  be  doing 
injustice  to  the  constitution,  were  we  to  judge  of 
it  by  the  practice  of  South  Carolina. 

But  the  inquirer  will  not  be  satisfied  with  the 
South  Carolina  reason.  He  wants  something 
more  and  better.  He  says,  too,  that  these  give 
good  occasion  to  those  exercising  the  powers  of 
the  government  to  confirm  all  law-abiding  citizens 
in  the  belief  that  they  are  well  protected  by  the 
constitution,  and  to  let  the  world  see  how  much 
the  United  States  prize  it.  But  supposing  he 
were  told  that  those  who  control  the  government 
feel,  in  this  matter,  with  South  Carolina,  —  that 
those  who  had  the  control  of  the  government  had 
no  power  to  coerce  South  Carolina  to  perform  her 
duty,  —  indeed,  in  a  partizan  view,  that  the  person 
injured  were  no  party,  —  that,  as  a  general  thing, 
they  could  not  even  vote,  —  were  unimportant, 
nay,  insignificant.  If  those  reasons  will  not  satisfy 
him,  he  must  be  content  with  them,  for  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  will  get  any  other.  We  further  see 
that  injustice  would  be  done  by  considering  the 
practice  of  a  people  as  fairly  representing  their 
constitution. 


118         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

A  constitution,  —  the  organic  law,  —  in  truth,  all 
other  law  is,  in  some  degree,  a  restraint  on  men. 
It  makes  an  umpire  of  right,  —  of  reason,  —  which, 
if  not  the  same  in  degree  in  all  of  us,  is  the  same 
in  nature.  Yet  it  must  be,  to  some  extent,  a 
restraint  on  the  desires  or  selfish  passions  of  men. 
In  fact,  it  is  only  carrying  out  the  rule  of  doing  to 
others  what  they  should  do  to  us,  and  tends  not 
only  to  preserve,  but  advance  society.  If  no  con- 
stitution or  law  agreeing  with  it  existed,  men  would 
be  left  to  the  sway  of  their  own  passions  —  nearly 
always  selfish — and  they  being  many  and  very 
different  in  different  persons,  sometimes,  indeed, 
altogether  opposite,  and  of  various  intensity, — 
would,  by  their  indulgence,  tend  to  confusion,  to 
the  deterioration  of  society,  and  to  its  ultimate 
dissolution. 

Now  the  people  of  the  United  States,  without 
the  least  hesitation  declare,  —  and  they  fully  believe 
it — that  we  are  the  freest  nation  on  earth.  Other 
nations,  doubtless,  with  equal  sincerity  say  of  them- 
selves the  same  thing.  In  England  where,  as  in 
other  countries  of  the  old  world,  there  is  a  crowded 
population,  raising  to  a  high  price  everything  eat- 
able, the  operatives,  as  they  are  called,  find  it 
difficult  to  sustain  life.  They  work  all  the  time 
they  can,  and,  even  after  doing  this,  they  some- 
times perish  for  want  of  such  food  as  a  human 
being  ought  to  eat.  No  one  will  say  that  affairs 
are  well  ordered  here.  Having  no  such  state  of 
things  ourselves — for  except  in  some  of  our  large 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         119 

cities,  no  one  starves  to  death  —  we  think  that  to 
suffer  one  to  die  in  this  way  is  cruel  and  heartless. 
And  we  greatly  upbraid  them  for  it. 

But  here  we  have  slavery,  —  a  vicious  usage 
which  European  nations,  excepting  one,  have  long 
since  laid  aside.  This  they  have  done  not  only 
because  it  was  productive  of  innumerable  visible 
evils,  but  because  it  greatly  and  injuriously  affect- 
ed the  character  of  all  concerned  in  it,  and  in  this 
way  the  character  of  the  whole  community, — 
making  one  part  of  it  proud  and  imperious,  —  an- 
other suppliant  and  servile.  They  upbraid  us 
with  it,  as  being  more  inconsistent  with  the  high 
principles  we  profess,  than  any  act  tolerated  among 
them  is  or  can  be  with  the  principles  they  profess. 
Then  whilst  we  wonder  that  with  so  much  wealth 
as  England  unquestionably  has,  she  should  suffer 
her  operatives  to  die  for  something  to  eat,  she 
wonders  that  slavery  —  the  worst  thing  known 
among  men  —  should  be  permitted  to  raise  its 
head,  not  only  as  high  as  the  many  good  and  ex- 
jilted  things  we  possess,  but  above  them,  making 
them,  when  necessary,  give  way  to  it  and  even  con- 
tribute to  its  support.  Indeed,  it  appears  to  them 
like  Satan  appearing  in  company  with  the  sons  of 
God,  to  accuse  and  try  one  of  his  children. 

But  all  this  is  of  no  avail.  It  produces  no  sat- 
isfying results,  —  in  fact  nothing  but  mutual  ill- 
will  and  irritation.  It  is  no  difficult  thing  to  se- 
lect from  the  practices  of  many  people  such  as  are 
not  what  they  ought  to  be,  —  still  the  theory,  the 


120          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

foundation  of  the  government  may  be  opposed  to 
them,  but  may  be  unable  to  put  them  down. 
They  may  exist  in  spite  of  it,  and  in  entire  oppo- 
sition to  its  main  object.  Indeed,  it  appears  to  be 
much  like  reasoning  in  a  circle.  We  come  to  no 
end,  —  no  conclusion.  To  come  to  any  satisfac- 
tory end,  —  any  useful  conclusion,  —  we  must 
take  something  permanent,  —  something  believed 
by  both  to  be  unchangeably  right  and  moral,  and 
compare  our  governments  with  it.  Whichever 
comes  nearest  to  the  standard  agreed  on  by  both, 
must  of  course  be  nearest  right.  But  what  shall 
this  be  ?  Now  as  it  is  utterly  in  vain  for  one  to 
be  happy  unless  he  conform  to  the  laws  of  his  be- 
ing, so  it  is  in  vain  that  governments  are  instituted 
unless  they  aim  to  secure  the  happiness  and  safety 
of  the  governed,  —  the  people.  The  peculiar  bene- 
fit or  enrichment  of  those  that  administer  the 
laws,  has  nothing  to  do  with  good  government. 
Then  it  ought,  by  all  means,  to  resemble  the 
Divine  government.  We  do  not  mean  a  theoc- 
racy as  it  has  been  administered,  the  worst,  per- 
haps, of  all  governments, — but  it  should  be  re- 
markable for  its  sacred  regard  to  justice  and  right. 
But  it  is  objected,  this  deals  with  persons  as 
individuals  and  not  as  members  of  the  body  poli- 
tic, and  that  all  Christ's  exhortations  were  of  this 
kind.  Well,  be  it  so,  —  what  of  it  ?  There  is  not 
the  least  danger,  if  one  will  acquit  himself  well  in 
his  various  relations  as  an  individual,  —  a  MAN, — 
but  what  he  will  make  a  good  citizen. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          121 

Taking  this  as  our  standard,  and  recurring  for  a 
moment  to  the  assertion  of  our  superior  happiness 
as  a  people  —  an  assertion  sometimes  regarded  as 
the  boastful  grandiloquence  of  our  people  —  is  it 
not  true  that  our  government,  our  constitution  of 
government  we  mean,  more  nearly  resembles  the 
Divine  government  than  any  other  does>  and 
therefore,  that  those  under  it  are  more  happy? 
Some,  while  they  are  inclined  to  admit  the  fact 
of  our  superior  happiness,  yet  seem  rather  to  at- 
tribute rt  to  our  great  abundance  of  land  than  to 
the  nature  of  the  government.  We  do  not  wish, 
in  any  way,  to  deny  or  even  to  neutralize  this 
statement  about  the  abundance  of  our  land,  but 
still  it  is  one  of  the  facts  of  the  government,  —  the 
government  was  made  with  this  in  view,  —  it 
constitutes  a  subject  for  its  action,  and  it  makes 
of  it  a  strong  auxiliary.  This,  though  undeniably 
a  great  cause,  is  not,  in  our  judgment,  the  chief 
one.  It  is  intellect,  —  mind  united  to  such  feek- 
ings  and  desires  that  most  advance  others  to  be- 
like God  in  intelligence  and  worth,  —  that  makes 
the  chief  cause.  Where  this  is  not,  —  or  is  not 
called  forth  and  put  into  activity,  nothing  to  pur- 
pose can  be  done.  Indeed,  it  is  the  most  power- 
ful agent  for  good  anywhere  to  be  found,  —  for  it 
is  behind  all  others,  and  sets  all  others  to  work. 

We  have  among  us  here  no  form  of  religion,  as- 

they  have  in  other  countries,  to  which  one  must 

conform    before   he   can    have   any   share  in  the. 

government,  —  no  religion  that  is  made  part  of  the 

11 


122          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

government,  and  which  is,  therefore,  national. 
Refigion  —  how  we  shall  serve  or  worship  a 
Being  or  beings  superior  to  ourselves,  and  who  are 
thought  to  influence  our  destiny  forever  —  is,  cer- 
tainly, the  highest  concern  of  man.  As  no  church 
or  nation  can  answer  for  him  at  the  judgment- 
seat,  he  ought  to  be  left  free  on  this  matter.  On 
this  point  he  is  free  in  this  country,  he  is  under 
no  necessity  to  think  in  a  particular  channel.  In 
his  inquiries  after  truth,  he  has  nothing  to  fear  from 
the  government  about  the  changes  through  which 
his  mind  may  pass,  or  the  conclusions  to  which 
it  may  be  led ;  although  he  may  draw  on  him  the 
prejudice  and  hatred  of  the  sects  from  whom  he 
feels  compelled  to  differ.*  We  may  truly  say,  that 
in  this  country,  however  far  we  may  go  in  imi- 
tating foreign  forms,  we  have  nothing  higher  than 
the  preacher  of  the  truth. 

We  have  no  monarch  born  to  rule  over  us, 
whether  we  will  or  not;  nor  are  we  obliged  to 
support  this  costly  leech  according  to  his  dignity 
by  money  wrung  from  the  labor  of  the  country, 
nor  a  host  of  relatives  according  to  their  dignity, 
as  connected  with  the  monarch. 

Nor  have  we  a  class  born  to  be  our  legislators. 
We  have  no  legislative  castes,  nor  social  castes, 
but  we  may  truly  say,  that  any  native-born  citi- 

*  It  is  vain  to  say  that  rich  governments  cannot,  and  do  not, 
offer  effective  temptations  to  clever  and  eloquent  men,  whose 
religious  views  differ  from  the  national  form,  to  induce  them  to 
adopt  the  latter. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM,          133 

zen  of  the  United  States  may  aspire  to  any  posi- 
tion, be  it  governmental  or  social. 

Nor  have  we  fought  so  long  —  though  it  must 
be  confessed  we  are  ready  pupils  here  —  as  most 
of  the  countries  of  the  old  world  have;  stijl  we 
begin  to  make  fighting  almost  a  part  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  a  part  of  the  religion  of  the  land.  But 
all  this  does  not  answer  the  question  that  many 
have  asked,  and  that  our  intelligence  and  exemp- 
tion from  bias  in  many  things  make  more  remark- 
able, —  why  did  we»  suffer  slavery  to  find  a  place 
in  a  constitution  in  which  there  are  so  many  good 
things,  —  why  did  we  make  a  garden  of  healthful 
fruits  and  enchanting  flowers,  and  place  this 
serpent  in  it  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  may  be  easily  given 
by  one  that  well  knows  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try that  soon  followed  on  the  treaty  of  1783.  Till 
we  were  governed  by  the  present  constitution  we 
were  governed  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation. 
The  United  States,  though  nominally  a  nation, 
had  no  power  to  enforce  any  stipulation  she  might 
make.  For  instance,  —  if  she  should  promise  by 
a  treaty  to  pay  interest  on  the  debt  that  we  had 
contracted  to  secure  our  national  independence, 
each  State  by  its  own  power  and  authority  were 
to  raise  its  quota  of  the  whole  amount.  If  a  State 
failed  to  raise  it,  the  United  States  had  no  redress. 
It  had  no  authority  to  coerce  any  State,  no  matter 
what  was  the  cause  of  failure.  This  is  given  as 
only  an  instance,  and  did  we  not  think  it  made 


124         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

•our  position  very  plain,  others  might  be  given  in 
manifold  abundance,  —  all  tending  to  show  the 
.unfaithfulness  of  the  States  to  the  engagements  of 
•ihe  'United  States,  and  the  utter  powerlessness  of 
-the  letter  to  keep  her  word.  It  was  owing  to  this 
that  the  main  object  of  the  Convention  was  the 
more  perfect  union  of  the  States,  and  that  in  this 
way  there  might  be  conferred  on  the  United  States 
the  same  plenary  power  to  carry  out  her  engage- 
ments that  a  State  had  to  carry  out  hers. 

The  Convention  did  not  meet  to  do  away  with 
slavery,  but  chiefly  to  form  such  a  union  as  would 
•obviate  the  difficulty  already  mentioned,  and  so 
keenly  felt  by  some  of  the  most  earnest  friends  of 
the  country.  Although  slavery  wTas  pretty  well 
'Understood  then,  and  seen  to  be  opposed  to  all 
the  principles  of  freedom  asserted,  yet  as  it  had 
.been  embraced  by  so  many,  that  if  they  should 
&e  united  against  the  constitution  its  adoption 
would  be  endangered,  it  was  thought  best  not  to 
insist  on  its  instant  abolition.  Men  as  yet  had 
too  much  selfishness  in  them,  and  alt  hough  reason- 
able beings,  they  have  too  much  of  the  animal  in 
them  to  see  that,  in  the  long  run,  honesty  is  the 
best  policy.  Many  of  the  opponents  of  slavery, 
-even  from  the  slave  States  themselves,  took  this 
•opportunity  of  showing  the  baseness  and  tur- 
.pitude  of  the  whole  system,  —  its  advocates  from 
the  far  South  defending  it  as  well  as  they  could. 
These  advocates  gave  it  as  their  opinion,  ihat 
owing  to  the  Declaration  of  1776,  one  which  had 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          125 

already  done  wonders  at  the  North,  —  owing  to 
the  influence  of  the  principles  of  liberty  inserted 
into  the  constitution,  and  to  the  feeling  of  jus- 
tice pervading  all  classes  of  persons,  and  to  the 
progress  of  refinement  and  true  civilization,  slavery 
would  ultimately  disappear.* 

*  Congress,  the  legislative  department,  and,  of  course,  the 
judicial,  its  interpreter,  were  intended  to  be  founded  on  such 
undoubted  principles  of  liberty,  that  it  would  be  difficult  for 
them  to  use  their  everywhere  acknowledged  rights,  and  per- 
form their  everywhere  expected  duties,  without  first  putting 
aside  the  strongest  impediment  to  their  exercise,  slavery.  In 
our  judgment  this  has  been  done.  There  is  no  truth  in  public 
law  more  certain  than  that  protection  and  allegiance  are  recip- 
rocal. They  must  exist  together  or  not  at  all.  The  power  of 
the  United  States  is  adequate  for  the  protection  of  all  within 
her  limits,  and  from  all  within  them  she  expects  allegiance.  If 
she  is  informed  in  any  way  to  be  relied  on,  that  any  person  is  re- 
strained of  his  rights  under  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  her  duty  to  see  him  set  at  liberty,  if  he  be  confined, 
and  see  that  he  is  redressed.  It  is  in  vain  for  Congress  to  ex- 
cuse itself  from  acting,  by  saying  that  it  is  a  State  concern. 
Can  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  if  he  be  a  citizen,  be  tor- 
tured or  tormented  by  a  State,  when  there  is  no  pretence  that 
he  has  violated  the  law  of  either  ? 

The  constitution  of  the  United  States  authorizes  no  man  to 
hold  another  as  a  slave.  The  United  States  has  no  power  to 
hold  a  slave.  It  matters  not  that  it  was  intended  to  allow  some 
to  hold  others  as  their  slaves.  A  very  vile  person  may  intend 
to  lock  up  in  prison  an  innocent  and  just  one,  but  through 
mistake  he  leaves  the  door  unlocked  ;  does  this,  in  the  eyes  of 
any  reasonable  men,  prevent  his  making  his  escape  through  the 
door  ?  We  are  certain  not.  The  only  proper  inquiry  here  is, 
which  is  supreme,  the  government  of  the  Union,  or  the  govern- 
ment of  a  particular  State  of  it.  It  is  not  necessary  to  answer 
11* 


126          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

At  the  time  this  opinion  was  expressed  by  the 
conventionists  from  the  South,  although  we  culti- 
vated cotton  to  a  small  extent,  it  could  not  be 
regarded  as  a  staple.  Soon  after  making  the  con- 
stitution, it  began  to  be  important.  It  could  be 
produced  only  at  the  South.  As  it  grew  in  value, 
the  notion  of  abolishing  slavery  began  to  wane, 
till  now  some  of  the  leading  men  of  that  part  of 
the  country  say  it  is  not  only  a  good  thing,  but  an 
indispensable  one  to  the  highest  perfection  of  the 
social  system. 


•<ihis.  If  the  first  deal  with  no  one  as  a  slave,  the  subordinate 
•cannot  by  law.  Persons  may  be  held  as  slaves  by  fraud,  by 
^  cunning,  by  taking  advantage  of  the  ignorance  in  which  we 
hold  them,  by  force,  or  a  successful  combination  of  force,  but 
not  by  LAW. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          127 


THE   TWO    ALTARS; 

OR, 

TWO     PICTURES    IN     ONE. 

BY    MRS.    HARRIET    BEECHER    STOWE. 
I. THE    ALTAR    OF    LIBERTY,    OR    1776. 

THE  well-sweep  of  the  old  house  on  the  hill  was 
relieved,  dark  and  clear,  against  the  reddening  sky, 
as  the  early  winter  sun  was  going  down  in  the 
west.  It  was  a  brisk,  clear,  metallic  evening;  the 
long  drifts  of  snow  blushed  crimson  red  on  their 
tops,  and  lay  in  shades  of  purple  and  lilac  in 
the  hollows  ;  and  the  old  wintry  wind  brushed 
shrewdly  along  the  plain,  tingling  people's  noses, 
blowing  open  their  cloaks,  puffing  in  the  back  of 
their  necks,  and  showing  other  unmistakable  indi- 
cations that  he  was  getting  up  steam  for  a  real 
roystering  night. 

"  Hurra !  how  it  blows  !  "  said  little  Dick  Ward, 
from  the  top  of  the  mossy  wood-pile. 

Now  Dick  had  been  sent  to  said  wood-pile,  in 


128 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


company  with  his  little  sister  Grace,  to  pick  up 
chips,  which,  every-body  knows,  was  in  the  olden 
time  considered  a  wholesome  and  gracious  employ- 
ment, and  the  peculiar  duty  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion. But  said  Dick,  being  a  boy,  had  mounted 
the  wood-pile,  and  erected  there  a  flag-staff,  on 
which  he  was  busily  tying  a  little  red  pocket- 
handkerchief,  occasionally  exhorting  Gracie  "  to 
be  sure  and  pick  up  fast."  "  O,  yes,  I  will,"  said 
Grace;  "but  you  see  the  chips  have  got  ice  on 
'em,  and  make  my  hands  so  cold !  " 

"  O !  don't  stop  to  suck  your  thumbs  !  —  who 
cares  for  ice  ?  Pick  away,  I  say,  while  I  set  up 
the  flag  of  Liberty." 

So  Grace  picked  away  as  fast  as  she  could, 
nothing  doubting  but  that  her  cold  thumbs  were 
in  some  mysterious  sense  an  offering  on  the 
shrine  of  Liberty ;  while  soon  the  red  handker- 
chief, duly  secured,  fluttered  and  snapped  in  the 
brisk  evening  wind. 

"  Now  you  must  hurra,  Gracie,  and  throw  up 
your  bonnet,"  said  Dicky,  as  he  descended  from 
the  pile. 

"  But  won't  it  lodge  down  in  some  place  in  the 
wood-pile  ?  "  suggested  Gracie,  thoughtfully. 

"  O,  never  fear ;  give  it  to  me,  and  just  holler 
now,  Gracie,  '  Hurra  for  Liberty  ;'  and  we  '11  throw 
up  your  bonnet  and  my  cap  ;  and  we  '11  play,  you 
know,  that  we  were  a  whole  army,  and  I  'm  Gene- 
ral Washington. 

So  Gracie  gave  up  her  little  red  hood,  and  Dick 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          129 

swung  his  cap,  and  up  they  both  went  into  the 
air ;  and  the  children  shouted,  and  the  flag  snap- 
ped and  fluttered,  and  altogether  they  had  a  merry 
time  of  it.  But  then  the  wind  —  good-for-nothing, 
roguish  fellow !  —  made  an  ungenerous  plunge  at 
poor  Oracle's  little  hood,  and  snipped  it  up  in  a 
twinkling,  and  whisked  it  oft',  off,  off,  —  fluttering 
and  bobbing  up  and  down,  quite  across  a  wide, 
waste,  snowy  field,  and  finally  lodged  it  on  the 
top  of  a  tall  strutting  rail,  that  was  leaning  very 
independently,  quite  another  way  from  all  the  other 
rails  of  the  fence. 

"  Now  see,  do  see  ! "  said  Gracie  ;  "  there  goes 
my  bonnet !  What  will  Aunt  Hitty  say  ?  "  and 
Gracie  began  to  cry. 

"  Don't  you  cry,  Gracie ;  you  offered  it  up  to 
Liberty,  you  know,  —  it 's  glorious  to  give  up 
everything  for  Liberty." 

"  O  !  but  Aunt  Hitty  won't  think  so." 

"  Well,  don't  cry,  Gracie,  you  foolish  girl !  Do 
you  think  I  can't  get  it?  Now,  only  play  that 
that  great  rail  was  a  fort,  and  your  bonnet  was  a 
prisoner  in  it,  and  see  how  quick  I  '11  take  the  fort, 
and  get  it!"  and  Dick  shouldered  a  stick,  and 
started  off. 

"  What  upon  'arth  keeps  those  children  so  long  ? 
I  should  think  they  were  making  chips!"  said 
Aunt  Mehetabel;  "the  fire's  just  a-going  out 
under  the  tea-kettle." 

By  this  time  Gracie  had  lugged  her  heavy  bas- 


130          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

ket  to  the  door,  and  was  stamping  the  snow  off 
her  little  feet,  which  were  so  numb  that  she 
needed  to  stamp,  to  be  quite  sure  they  were  yet 
there.  Aunt  Mehetabel's  shrewd  face  was  the 
first  that  greeted  her,  as  the  door  opened. 

"  Gracie  —  what  upon  'airth  !  —  wipe  your  nose, 
child ;  your  hands  are  frozen.  Where  alive  is 
Dick,  and  what 's  kept  you  out  all  this  time,  — 
and  where  's  your  bonnet  ?  " 

Poor  Gracie,  stunned  by  this  cataract  of  ques- 
tions, neither  wiped  her  nose  nor  gave  any  answer ; 
but  sidled  up  into  the  warm  corner,  where  grand- 
mamma was  knitting,  and  began  quietly  rubbing 
and  blowing  her  fingers,  while  the  tears  silently 
rolled  down  her  cheeks,  as  the  fire  made  their  for- 
mer ache  intolerable. 

"Poor  little  dear!"  said  grandmamma,  taking 
her  hands  in  hers ;  "  Hitty  shan't  scold  you. 
Grandma  knows  you  've  been  a  good  girl,  —  the. 
wind  blew  poor  Grade's  bonnet  away  ; "  and 
grandmamma  wiped  both  eyes  and  nose,  and  gave 
her,  moreover,  a  stalk  of  dried  fennel  out  of  her 
pocket,  whereat  Gracie  took  heart  once  more. 

"  Mother  always  makes  fools  of  Roxy's  chil- 
dren," said  Mehetabel,  puffing  zealously  under 
the  tea-kettle.  "  There  's  a  little  maple  sugar  in 
that  saucer  up  there,  mother,  if  you  will  keep  giv- 
ing it  to  her,"  she  said,  still  vigorously  puffing. 
"  And  now,  Gracie,"  she  said,  when,  after  a  while, 
the  fire  seemed  in  tolerable  order,  "will  you 
answer  my  question  ?  —  Where  is  Dick  ?  " 


AUTOGRAPHS  FUR  FREEDOM.  131 

"  Gone  over  in  the  lot,  to  get  my  bonnet." 

"  How  came  your  bonnet  off?"  said  Aunt  Me- 
hetabel.  "  I  tied  it 'on  firm  enough." 

"  Dick  wanted  me  to  take  it  off  for  him,  to  throw 
up  for  Liberty,"  said  Grace. 

"  Throw  up  for  fiddlestick !  just  one  of  Dick's 
cut-ups,  and  you  was  silly  enough  to  mind  him ! " 

"  Why,  he  put  up  a  flag-staff  on  the  wood-pile, 
and  a  flag  to  Liberty,  you  know,  that  papa's  fight- 
ing for,"  said  Grace,  more  confidently,  as  she  saw 
her  quiet,  blue-eyed  mother,  who  had  silently 
walked  into  the  room  during  the  conversation. 

"  Grace's  mother  smiled,  and  said,  encourag- 
ingly, "  And  what  then  ?  " 

"  Why,  he  wanted  me  to  throw  up  my  bonnet 
and  he  his  cap,  and  shout  for  Liberty  ;  and  then 
the  wind  took  it  and  carried  it  off,  and  he  said  I 
ought  not  to  be  sorry  if  I  did  lose  it,  —  it  was  an 
offering  to  Liberty." 

"  And  so  I  did,"  said  Dick,  who  was  standing 
as  straight  as  a  poplar  behind  the  group  ;  "  and  I 
heard  it  in  one  of  father's  letters  to  mother,  that 
we  ought  to  offer  up  everything  on  the  altar  of 
Liberty !  And  so  I  made  an  altar  of  the  wood-pile." 

"  Good  boy !  "  said  his  mother, "  always  remem- 
ber everything  your  father  writes.  He  has  offered 
up  everything  on  the  altar  of  Liberty,  true  enough ; 
and  I  hope  you,  son,  will  live  to  do  the  same." 

"  Only,  if  I  have  the  hoods  and  caps  to  make," 
said  Aunt  Hitty,  "  I  hope  he  won't  offer  them  up 
every  week  —  that's  all !  " 


132          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

"  O!  well,  Aunt  Hitty,  I've  got  the  hood,  — let 
me  alone  for  that.  It  blew  clear  over  into  the 
Daddy  Ward  pasture-lot,  and  there  stuck  on  the 
top  of  the  great  rail ;  and  I  played  that  the  rail 
was  a  fort,  and  besieged  it,  and  took  it." 

"  O !  yes,  you  're  always  up  to  taking  forts,  and 
anything  else  that  nobody  wants  done.  I  '11  war- 
rant, now,  you  left  Gracie  to  pick  up  every  blessed 
one  of  them  chips  !  " 

"  Picking  up  chips  is  girl's  work,"  said  Dick ; 
"and  taking  forts  and  defending  the  country  is 
men's  work." 

"  And  pray,  Mister  Pomp,  how  long  have  you 
been  a  man  ?"  said  Aunt  Hitty. 

"  If  I  a'nt  a  man,  I  soon  shall  be ;  my  head  is 
'most  up  to  my  mother's  shoulder,  and  I  can  fire 
off  a  gun  too.  I  tried,  the  other  day,  when  I  was 
up  to  the  store.  Mother,  I  wish  you'd  let  me 
clean  and  load  the  old  gun ;  so  that,  if  the  British 
should  come  ! " 

"  Well,  if  you  are  so  big  and  grand,  just  lift  me 
out  that  table,  sir,"  said  Aunt  Hitty,  "  for  its  past 
supper-time." 

Dick  sprung,  and  had  the  table  out  in  a  trice, 
with  an  abundant  clatter,  and  put  up  the  leaves 
with  quite  an  air.  His  mother,  with  the  silent 
and  gliding  motion  characteristic  of  her,  quietly 
took  out  the  table-cloth  and  spread  it,  and  began 
to  set  the  cups  and  saucers  in  order,  and  to  put  on 
the  plates  and  knives,  while  Aunt  Hitty  bustled 
about  the  tea. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         133 

"  I  '11  be  glad  when  the  war's  over,  for  one  rea- 
son," said  she.  "  I  'm  pretty  much  tired  of  drink- 
ing sage-tea,  for  one,  I  know." 

"  Well,  Aunt  Hitty,  how  you  scolded  that  ped- 
ler,  last  week,  that  brought  along  that  real  tea." 

"  To  be  sure  I  did.  S'pose  I  'd  be  taking  any 
of  his  old  tea,  bought  of  the  British  ?  —  fling  every 
tea-cup  in  his  face,  first ! " 

"  Well,  mother,"  said  Dick,  "  I  never  exactly 
understood  what  it  was  about  the  tea,  and  why 
the  Boston  folks  threw  it  all  overboard." 

"  Because  there  was  an  unlawful  tax  laid  upon 
it,  that  the  government  had  no  right  to  lay.  It 
was  n't  much  in  itself ;  but  it  was  a  part  of  a 
whole  system  of  oppressive  meanness,  designed 
to  take  away  our  rights,  and  make  us  slaves  of  a 
foreign  power ! " 

"  Slaves ! "  said  Dicky,  straightening  himself 
proudly.  "  Father  a  slave ! " 

"  But  they  would  not  be  slaves !  They  saw 
clearly  where  it  would  all  end,  and  they  would 
not  begin  to  submit  to  it  in  ever  so  little,"  said  the 
mother. 

"  I  would  n't,  if  I  was  they,"  said  Dicky. 

"  Besides,"  said  his  mother,  drawing  him  towards 
her,  "  it  was  n't  for  themselves  alone  they  did  it. 
This  is  a  great  country,  and  it  will  be  greater  and 
greater:  and  it's  very  important  that  it  should 
have  free  and  equal  laws,  because  it  will  by  and 
by  be  so  great.  This  country,  if  it  is  a  free  one, 
will  be  a  light  of  the  world,  —  a  city  set  on  a  hill, 
12 


134         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

that  cannot  be  hid ;  and  all  the  oppressed  and  dis- 
tressed from  other  countries  shall  come  here  to 
enjoy  equal  rights  and  freedom.  This,  dear  boy, 
is  why  your  father  and  uncles  have  gone  to  fight, 
and  why  they  do  stay  and  fight,  though  God 
knows  what  they  suffer,  and  — "  and  the  large 
blue  eyes  of  the  mother  were  full  of  tears ;  yet  a 
strong,  bright  beam  of  pride  and  exultation  shone 
through  those  tears. 

"  Well,  well,  Roxy,  you  can  always  talk,  every- 
body knows,"  said  Aunt  Hitty,  who  had  been  not 
the  least  attentive  listener  of  this  little  patriotic 
harangue ;  "  but,  you  see,  the  tea  is  getting  cold, 
and  yonder  I  see  the  sleigh  is  at  the  door,  and 
John 's  come,  —  so  let 's  set  up  our  chairs  for  sup- 
per." 

The  chairs  were  soon  set  up,  when  John,  the 
eldest  son,  a  lad  of  about  fifteen,  entered  with  a 
letter.  There  was  one  general  exclamation,  and 
stretching  out  of  hands  towards  it.  John  threw  it 
into  his  mother's  lap  ;  —  the  tea-table  was  forgot- 
ten, and  the  tea-kettle  sang  unnoticed  by-  the  fire, 
as  all  hands  piled  themselves  up  by  mother's  chair 
to  hear  the  news.  It  was  from  Captain  Ward, 
then  in  the  American  army,  at  Valley  Forge. 
Mrs.  Ward  ran  it  over  hastily,  and  then  read  it 
aloud.  A  few  words  we  may  extract :  "  There  is 
still,"  it  said,  "much  suffering.  I  have  given 
away  every  pair  of  stockings  you  sent  me,  reserv- 
ing to  myself  only  one ;  for  I  will  not  be  one  whit 
better  off  than  the  poorest  soldier  that  fights  for 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         135 

his  country.  Poor  fellows!  it  makes  my  heart 
ache  sometimes  to  go  round  among  them,  and  see 
them  with  their  worn  clothes  and  torn  shoes,  and 
often  bleeding  feet,  yet  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and 
every  one  willing  to  do  his  very  best.  Often  the 
spirit  of  discouragement  comes  over  them,  particu- 
larly at  night,  when,  wea;ry,  cold,  and  hungry,  they 
turn  into  their  comfortless  huts,  on  the  snowy 
ground.  Then  sometimes  there  is  a  thought  of 
home,  and  warm  fires,  and  some  speak  of  giving 
up;  but  next  morning  out  comes  Washington's 
general  orders,  —  little  short  note,  but  it 's  wonder- 
ful the  good  it  does !  and  then  they  all  resolve  to 
hold  on,  come  what  may.  There  are  commission- 
ers going  ah1  through  the  country  to  pick  up  sup- 
plies. If  they  come  to  you,  I  need  not  tell  you 
what  to  do.  I  know  all  that  will  be  in  your  hearts." 

"  There,  children,  see  what  your  father  suffers," 
said  the  mother,  "  and  what  it  costs  these  poor  sol- 
diers to  gain  our  liberty." 

"  Ephraim  Scranton  told  me  that  the  commis- 
sioners had  come  as  far  as  the  Three-mile  Tavern, 
and  that  he  rather  'spected  they  'd  be  along  here 
to-night,"  said  John,  as  he  was  helping  round  the 
baked  beans  to  the  silent  company  at  the  tea-table." 

«  To-night?  —  Do  tell,  now!"  said  Aunt  Hitty. 
"  Then  it 's  time  we  were  awake  and  stirring. 
Let's  see  what  can  be  got." 

"  I  '11  send  my  new  over-coat,  for  one,"  said 
John.  "  That  old  one  an't  cut  up  yet,  is  it,  Aunt 
Hitty?" 


136         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

"No,"  said  Aunt  Hitty;  "  I  was  laying  out  to 
cut  it  over,  next  Wednesday,  when  Desire  Smith 
could  be  here  to  do  the  tailoring." 

"  There 's  the  south  room,  said  Aunt  Hitty,  mus- 
ing ;  "  that  bed  has  the  two  old  Aunt  Ward  blan- 
kets on  it,  and  the  great  blue  quilt,  and  two  com- 
forters. Then  mother's  and  my  room,  two  pair  — 
four  comforters  —  two  quilts  —  the  best  chamber 
has  got " 

"  O !  Aunt  Hitty,  send  all  that 's  in  the  best 
chamber.  If  any  company  comes,  we  can  make 
it  up  off  from  our  beds ! "  said  John.  "  I  can  send 
a  blanket  or  two  off  from  my  bed,  I  know ;  — 
can't  but  just  turn  over  in  it,  so  many  clothes  on, 
now." 

"  Aunt  Hitty,  take  a  blanket  off  from  our  bed," 
said  Grace  and  Dicky,  at  once. 

"  Well,  well,  we  '11  see,"  said  Aunt  Hitty,  bust- 
tling  up. 

Up  rose  grandmamma,  with  great  earnestness, 
now,  and  going  into  the  next  room,  arid  opening 
a  large  cedar-wood  chest,  returned,  bearing  in  her 
arms  two  large  snow-white  blankets,  which  she 
deposited  flat  on  the  table,  just  as  Aunt  Hitty  was 
whisking  off  the  table-cloth. 

"  Mortal !  mother,  what  are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 
said  Aunt  Hitty. 

"  There,"  she  said,  "  I  spun  those,  every  thread 
of  'em,  when  my  name  was  Mary  Evans.  Those 
were  my  wedding  blankets,  made  of  real  nice 
wool,  and  worked  with  roses  in  all  the  corners. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          137 

I  've  got  them  to  give ! "  and  grandmamma  stroked 
and  smoothed  the  blankets,  and  patted  them 
down,  with  great  pride  and  tenderness.  It  was 
evident  she  was  giving  something  that  lay  very 
near  her  heart ;  but  she  never  faltered. 

"  La !  mother,  there 's  no  need  of  that,"  said 
Aunt  Hitty.  "  Use  them  on  your  own  bed,  and 
send  the  blankets  off  from  that ;  —  they  are  just  as 
good  for  the  soldiers." 

"  No,  I  shan't ! "  said  the  old  lady,  waxing 
warm  ;  "  't  an't  a  bit  too  good  for  'em.  I  '11  send 
the  very  best  I  've  got,  before  they  shall  suffer. 
Send  'em  the  best ! "  and  the  old  lady  gestured 
oratorically ! 

They  were  interrupted  by  a  rap  at  the  door,  and 
two  men  entered,  and  announced  themselves  as 
commissioned  by  Congress  to  search  out  supplies 
for  the  army.  Now  the  plot  thickens.  Aunt 
Hitty  flew  in  every  direction,  —  through  entry- 
passage,  meal-room,  milk-room,  down  cellar,  up 
chamber,  —  her  cap-border  on  end  with  patriotic 
zeal ;  and  followed  by  John,  Dick,  and  Gracie,  who 
eagerly  bore  to  the  kitchen  the  supplies  that  she 
turned  out,  while  Mrs.  Ward  busied  herself  in 
quietly  sorting,  bundling,  and  arranging  in  the  best 
possible  travelling  order,  the  various  contributions 
that  were  precipitately  launched  on  the  kitchen 
floor. 

Aunt  Hitty  soon  appeared  in  the  kitchen  with 
an  armful  of  stockings,  which,  kneeling  on  the 
floor,  she  began  counting  and  laying  out. 
12* 


136         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

"  There,"  she  said,  laying  down  a  large  bundle 
on  some  blankets,  "  that  leaves  just  two  pair  apiece 
all  round." 

"  La !  "  said  John,  "  what 's  the  use  of  saving 
two  pair  for  me  ?  I  can  do  with  one  pair,  as  well 
as  father." 

"  Sure  enough,"  said  his  mother ;  "  besides,  I 
can  knit  you  another  pair  in  a  day." 

"  And  I  can  do  with  one  pair,"  said  Dickey. 

"  Yours  will  be  too  small,"  young  master,  I  guess, 
said  one  of  the  commissioners. 

"  No,"  said  Dicky ;  "  I've  got  a  pretty  good  foot 
of  my  own,  and  Aunt  Hitty  will  always  knit  my 
stockings  an  inch  too  long,  'cause  she  says  I  grow 
so.  See  here,  —  these  will  do ;  "  and  the  boy  shook 
his,  triumphantly. 

"  And  mine,  too,"  said  Gracie,  nothing  doubt- 
ing, having  been  busy  all  the  time  in  pulling  off 
her  little  stockings. 

"  Here,"  she  said  to  the  man  who  was  packing 
the  things  into  a  wide-mouthed  sack ;  "  here  's 
mine,"  and  her  large  blue  eyes  looked  earnestly 
through  her  tears. 

Aunt  Hitty  flew  at  her.  —  "Good  land!  the 
child 's  crazy !  Don 't  think  the  men  could  wear 
your  stockings,  —  take  'em  away ! " 

Gracie  looked  around  with  an  air  of  utter  deso- 
lation, and  began  to  cry.  "  I  wanted  to  give  them 
something,"  said  she.  "  I  'd  rather  go  barefoot  on 
the  snow  all  day,  than  not  send  'em  anything." 

"  Give  me  the  stockings,  my  child,"  said  the  old 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          139 

soldier,  tenderly.  "  There,  I  '11  take  'em,  and  show 
'em  to  the  soldiers,  and  tell  them  what  the  little 
girl  said  that  sent  them.  And  it  will  do  them  as 
much  good  as  if  they  could  wear  them.  They  've 
got  little  girls  at  home,  too."  Gracie  fell  on  her 
mother's  bosom  completely  happy,  and  Aunt  Hitty 
only  muttered, 

"  Everybody  does  spile  that  child ;  and  no  won- 
der, neither!" 

Soon  the  old  sleigh  drove  off  from  the  brown 
house,  tightly  packed  and  heavily  loaded.  And 
Gracie  and  Dicky  were  creeping  up  to  their  little 
beds. 

"There's  been  something  put  on  the  altar  of 
Liberty  to-night,  has  n't  there,  Dick  ?  " 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  said  Dick ;  and,  looking  up  to 
his  mother,  he  said,  "  But,  mother,  what  did  you 
give?" 

"  I  ?  "  said  the  mother,  musingly. 

"  Yes,  you,  mother ;  what  have  you  given  to 
the  country?" 

"  All  that  I  have,  dears,"  said  she,  laying  her 
hands  gently  on  their  heads,  —  "  my  husband  and 
my  children ! " 


140          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


II. THE  ALTAR  OF  ,  OR  1850. 

The  setting  sun  of  chill  December  lighted  up 
the  solitary  front  window  of  a  small  tenement  on 

street,  which  we  now  have  occasion  to  visit. 

As  we  push  gently  aside  the  open  door,  we  gain 
sight  of  a  small  room,  clean  as  busy  hands  can 
make  it,  where  a  neat,  cheerful  young  mulatto 
woman  is  busy  at  an  ironing-table.  A  basket  full 
of  glossy-bosomed  shirts,  and  faultless  collars  and 
wristbands,  is  beside  her,  into  which  she  is  placing 
the  last  few  items  with  evident  pride  and  satisfac- 
tion. A  bright,  black-eyed  boy,  just  come  in  from 
school,  with  his  satchel  of  books  over  his  shoulder, 
stands,  cap  in  hand,  relating  to  his  mother  how  he 
has  been  at  the  head  of  his  class,  and  showing  his 
school-tickets,  which  his  mother,  with  untiring 
admiration,  deposits  in  the  little  real  china  tea- 
pot, —  which,  as  being  their  most  reliable  article  of 
gentility,  is  made  the  deposit  of  all  the  money  and 
most  especial  valuables  of  the  family. 

"  Now,  Henry,"  says  the  mother,  "look  out  and 
see  if  father  is  coming  along  the  street ; "  and  she 
begins  filling  the  little  black  tea-kettle,  which  is 
soon  set  singing  on  the  stove. 

From  the  inner  room  now  daughter  Mary,  a 
well-grown  girl  of  thirteen,  brings  the  baby,  just 
roused  from  a  nap,  and  very  impatient  to  renew 
his  acquaintance  with  his  mamma. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         141 

"  Bless  his  bright  eyes !  —  mother  will  take  him," 
ejaculates  the  busy  little  woman,  whose  hands  are 
by  this  time  in  a  very  floury  condition,  in  the  in- 
cipient stages  of  wetting  up  biscuit,  —  "in  a 
minute ; "  and  she  quickly  frees  herself  from  the 
flour  and  paste,  and,  deputing  Mary  to  roll  out  her 
biscuit,  proceeds  to  the  consolation  and  succor  of 
young  master. 

"Now,  Henry,"  says  the  mother,  "you'll  have 
time,  before  supper,  to  take  that  basket  of  clothes 
up  to  Mr.  Sheldin's ;  —  put  in  that  nice  bill,  that 
you  made  out  last  night.  I  shall  give  you  a  cent 
for  every  bill  you  write  out  for  me.  What  a  com- 
fort it  is,  now,  for  one's  children  to  be  gettin' 
learnin'  so!" 

Henry  shouldered  the  basket,  and  passed  out 
the  door,  just  as  a  neatly-dressed  colored  man 
walked  up,  with  his  pail  and  white-wash  brushes. 

"  O,  you  've  come,  father,  have  you  ?  —  Mary, 
are  the  biscuits  in  ?  —  you  may  as  well  set  the 
table,  now.  Well,  George,  what 's  the  news  ?  " 

"  Nothing,  only  a  pretty  smart  day's  work. 
I  've  brought  home  five  dollars,  and  shall  have  as 
much  as  I  can  do,  these  two  weeks ; "  and  the 
man,  having  washed  his  hands,  proceeded  to  count 
out  his  change  on  the  ironing-table. 

"  Well,  it  takes  you  to  bring  in  the  money," 
said  the  delighted  wife ;  "nobody  but  you,  could 
turn  off  that  much  in  a  day !  " 

"  Well,  they  do  say  —  those  that 's  had  me  once 
—  that  they  never  want  any  other  hand  to  take 


142         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

hold  in  their  rooms.  I  s'pose  its  a  kinder  practice 
I  Ve  got,  and  kinder  natural ! " 

"  Tell  ye  what,"  said  the  little  woman,  taking 
down  the  family  strong  box,  —  to  wit,  the  china 
tea-pot,  aforenamed,  —  and  pouring  the  contents 
on  the  table,  "  we  're  getting  mighty  rich,  now ! 
We  can  afford  to  get  Henry  his  new  Sunday-cap, 
and  Mary  her  muslin-de-laine  dress  ;  —  take  care, 
baby,  you  rogue ! "  she  hastily  interposed,  as  young 
master  made  a  dive  at  a  dollar  bill,  for  his  share 
in  the  proceeds. 

"  He  wants  something,  too,  I  suppose,"  said  the 
father ;  "  let  him  get  his  hand  in  while  he  's  young." 

The  baby  gazed,  with  round,  astonished  eyes, 
while  mother,  with  some  difficulty,  rescued  the 
bill  from  his  grasp ;  but,  before  any  one  could  at 
all  anticipate  his  purpose,  he  dashed  in  among  the 
small  change  with  such  zeal  as  to  send  it  flying  all 
over  the  table. 

"  Hurra !  —  Bob 's  a  smasher !  "  said  the  father, 
delighted ;  "  he  '11  make  it  fly,  he  thinks ;  "  and, 
taking  the  baby  on  his  knee,  he  laughed  merrily, 
as  Mary  and  her  mother  pursued  the  rolling  coin 
all  over  the  room. 

"  He  knows  now,  as  well  as  can  be,  that  he 's 
been  doing  mischief,"  said  the  delighted  mother, 
as  the  baby  kicked  and  crowed  uproariously ;  — 
"he's  such  a  forward  child,  now,  to  be  only  six 
months  old !  —  O,  you  've  no  idea,  father,  how 
mischievous  he  grows,"  and  therewith  the  little 
woman  began  to  roll  and  tumble  the  little  mischief- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         143 

maker  about,  uttering  divers  frightful  threats, 
which  appeared  to  contribute,  in  no  small  degree, 
to  the  general  hilarity. 

"  Come,  come,  Mary,"  said  the  mother,  at  last, 
with  a  sudden  burst  of  recollection  ;  "  you  must  n't 
be  always  on  your  knees  fooling  with  this  child !  — 
Look  in  the  oven  at  them  biscuits." 

"They're  done  exactly,  mother, — just  the 
brown ! " —  and,  with  the  word,  the  mother  dumped 
baby  on  to  his  father's  knee,  where  he  sat  content- 
edly munching  a  very  ancient  crust  of  bread,  occa- 
sionally improving  the  flavor  thereof  by  rubbing  it 
on  his  father's  coat-sleeve. 

"  What  have  you  got  in  that  blue  dish,  there?" 
said  George,  when  the  whole  little  circle  were 
seated  around  the  table. 

"  Well,  now,  what  do  you  suppose  ? "  said  the 
little  woman,  delighted ;  —  "  a  quart  of  nice  oysters, 
— just  for  a  treat,  you  know.  I  would  n't  tell  you 
till  this  minute,"  said  she,  raising  the  cover. 

"  Well,"  said  George,  "  we  both  work  hard  for 
our  money,  and  we  don't  owe  anybody  a  cent; 
and  why  should  n't  we  have  our  treats,  now  and 
then,  as  well  as  rich  folks?" 

And  gayly  passed  the  supper  hour;  the  tea-ket- 
tle sung,  the  baby  crowed,  and  all  chatted  and 
laughed  abundantly. 

"I'll  tell  you,"  said  George,  wiping  his  mouth, 
"  wife,  these  times  are  quite  another  thing  from 
what  it  used  to  be  down  in  Georgia.  I  remem- 
ber then  old  Mas'r  used  to  hire  me  out  by  the  year; 


144         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

and  one  time,  I  remember,  I  came  and  paid  him 
in  two  hundred  dollars,  —  every  cent  I'd  taken. 
He  just  looked  it  over,  counted  it,  and  put  it  in  his 
pocket-book,  and  said,  *  You  are  a  good  boy, 
George,' —  and  he  gave  me  half-a-dollar  !  " 

"  I  want  to  know,  now ! "  said  his  wife. 

"  Yes,  he  did,  and  that  was  every  cent  I  ever 
got  of  it ;  and,  I  tell  you,  I  was  mighty  bad  off  for 
clothes,  them  times." 

"  Well,  well,  the  Lord  be  praised,  they  're  over, 
and  you  are  in  a  free  country  now ! "  said  the  wife, 
as  she  rose  thoughtfully  from  the  table,  and  brought 
her  husband  the  great  Bible.  The  little  circle 
were  ranged  around  the  stove  for  evening  prayers. 

"  Henry,  my  boy,  you  must  read,  —  you  are  a 
better  reader  than  your  father,  —  thank  God,  that 
let  you  learn  early !  " 

The  boy,  with  a  cheerful  readiness,  read,  "  The 
Lord  is  my  shepherd,"  and  the  mother  gently 
stilled  the  noisy  baby,  to  listen  to  the  holy  words. 
Then  all  kneeled,  while  the  father,  with  simple  ear- 
nestness, poured  out  his  soul  to  God. 

They  had  but  just  risen,  —  the  words  of  Christian 
hope  and  trust  scarce  died  on  their  lips, — when  lo! 
the  door  was  burst  open,  and  two  men  entered ; 
and  one  of  the,m  advancing,  laid  his  hand  on  the 
father's  shoulder.  "  This  is  the  fellow,"  said  he. 

"  You  are  arrested  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States ! "  said  the  other. 

"  Gentlemen,  what  is  this  ?  "  said  the  poor  man, 
trembling. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         145 

"  Are  you  not  the  property  of  Mr.  B.,  of  Geor- 
gia ?  "  said  the  officer. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  've  been  a  free,  hard-working 
man,  these  ten  years." 

"Yes,  but  you  are  arrested,  on  suit  of  Mr.  B., 
as  his  slave." 

Shall  we  describe  the  leave-taking?  —  the  sor- 
rowing wife,  the  dismayed  children,  the  tears,  the 
anguish,  —  that  simple,  honest,  kindly  home,  in  a 
moment  so  desolated!  Ah,  ye  who  defend  this 
because  it  is  law,  think,  for  one  hour,  what  if  this 
that  happens  to  your  poor  brother  should  happen 
to  you!"  ***** 

It  was  a  crowded  court-room,  and  the  man  stood 
there  to  be  tried  —  for  life  ?  —  no ;  but  for  the  life 
of  life  —  for  liberty ! 

Lawyers  hurried  to  and  fro,  buzzing,  consulting, 
bringing  authorities,  —  all  anxious,  zealous,  en- 
gaged,—  for  what?  —  to  save  a  fellow-man  from 
bondage  ?  —  no ;  anxious  and  zealous  lest  he  might 
escape,  —  full  of  zeal  to  deliver  him  over  to  slavery. 
The  poor  man's  anxious  eyes  follow  vainly  the 
busy  course  of  affairs,  from  which  he  dimly  learns 
that  he  is  to  be  sacrificed  —  on  the  altar  of  the 
Union ;  and  that  his  heart-break  and  anguish,  and 
the  tears  of  his  wife,  and  the  desolation  of  his 
children,  are,  in  the  eyes  of  these  well-informed 
men,  only  the  bleat  of  a  sacrifice,  bound  to  the 
horns  of  the  glorious  American  altar !  *  *  *  * 

Again  it  is  a  bright  day,  and  business  walks 
brisk  in  this  market.  Senator  and  statesman,  the 
13 


146          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

learned  and  patriotic,  are  out,  this  day,  to  give 
their  countenance  to  an  edifying  and  impressive, 
and  truly  American  spectaclej  —  the  sale  of  a  man ! 
All  the  preliminaries  of  the  scene  are  there ;  dusky- 
browed  mothers,  looking  with  sad  eyes  while 
speculators  are  turning  round  their  children, — 
looking  at  their  teeth,  and  feeling  of  their  arms ;  a 
poor,  old,  trembling  woman,  helpless,  half-blind, 
whose  last  child  is  to  be  sold,  holds  on  to  her 
bright  boy  with  trembling  hands.  Husbands  and 
wives,  sisters  and  friends,  all  soon  to  be  scattered 
like  the  chaff  of  the  threshing-floor,  look  sadly  on 
each  other  with  poor  nature's  last  tears ;  and 
among  them  walk  briskly  glib,  oily  politicians,  and 
thriving  men  of  law,  letters,  and  religion,  exceed- 
ingly sprightly  and  in  good  spirits,  —  for  why  ?  — 
it  is  n't  they  that  are  going  to  be  sold ;  it 's  only 
somebody  else.  And  so  they  are  very  comfortable, 
and  look  on  the  whole  thing  as  quite  a  matter-of- 
course  affair ;  and,  as  it  is  to  be  conducted  to-day, 
a  decidedly  valuable  and  judicious  exhibition. 

And  now,  after  so  many  hearts  and  souls  have 
been  knocked  and  thumped  this  way  and  that  way 
by  the  auctioneer's  hammer,  comes  the  instructive 
part  of  the  whole ;  and  the  husband  and  father, 
whom  we  saw  in  his  simple  home,  reading  and 
praying  with  his  children,  and  rejoicing,  in  the 
joy  of  his  poor  ignorant  heart,  that  he  lived  in  a 
free  country,  is  now  set  up  to  be  admonished  of 
his  mistake. 

Now  there  is  great  excitement,  and  pressing  to 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

see,  and  exultation  and  approbation ;  for  it  is  im- 
portant and  interesting  to  see  a  man  put  down 
that  has  tried  to  be  afree  man. 

"  That 's  he,  is  it  ?  —  Could  n't  come  it,  could 
he  ?  "  says  one. 

"  No,  and  he  will  never  come  it,  that 's  more," 
says  another,  triumphantly. 

"  I  don't  generally  take  much  interest  in  scenes 
of  this  nature,"  says  a  grave  representative;  — 
"but  I  came  here  to-day  for  the  sake  of  the 
principle  !  " 

"  Gentlemen,"  says  the  auctioneer,  "we've  got 
a  specimen  here  that  some  of  your  Northern  aboli- 
tionists would  give  any  price  for ;  but  they  shan't 
have  him !  —  no !  we  've  looked  out  for  that.  The 
man  that  buys  him  must  give  bonds  never  to  sell 
him  to  go  North  again!" 

"  Go  it !  "  shout  the  crowd,  "  good !  —  good !  — 
hurra!"  "An  impressive  idea!"  says  a  senator; 
"  a  noble  maintaining  of  principle !  "  and  the  man 
is  bid  off,  and  the  hammer  falls  with  a  last  crash 
on  his  hearth,  and  hopes,  and  manhood,  and  he 
lies  a  bleeding  wreck  on  the  altar  of  Liberty ! 

Such  was  the  altar  in  1776 ;  —  such  is  the  altar 
in  1850! 


148          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


OUTLINE    OF    A    MAN. 


IN  some  of  those  castle-building  day-dreams,  in 
which,  like  all  youth  of  an  imaginative  turn,  I  was 
wont,  in  my  early  days,  to  indulge,  a  favorite  image 
of  my  creation  was  an  Africo- American  for  the 
time,  —  a  colored  man,  who  had  known  by  experi- 
ence the  bitterness  of  slavery,  and  now  by  some 
process  free,  so  endowed  with  natural  powers,  and 
a  certain  degree  of  attainments,  all  the  more  rare 
and  effective  for  being  acquired  under  great  disad- 
vantages, —  as  to  be  a  sort  of  Moses  to  his  oppressed 
and  degraded  tribe.  He  was  to  be  gifted  with  a 
noble  person,  of  course,  and  refinement  of  manners, 
and  some  elegance  of  thought  and  expression  ;  by 
what  unprecedented  miracle  such  a  paragon  was 
to  be  graduated  through  the  educational  appliances 
of  American  slavery,  imagination  did  not  trouble 
herself  to  inquire.  She  was  painting  fancy-pieces, 
not  portraits. 

Having  thus  irresponsibly  struck  out  upon  the 
canvas  her  central  figure,  she  would  not  be  slow 
to  complete  the  picture  with  many  a  rose-colored 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          149 

vision  of  brilliant  successes  and  magic  triumphs 
won  by  her  hero,  in  his  great  enterprise  of  the 
redemption  of  his  people.  A  burning  sense  of 
their  wrongs  fired  his  eloquence  with  an  undying, 
passionate  earnestness,  and  as  he  alternately  re- 
proached the  injustice,  and  appealed  to  the  gene- 
rosity of  his  oppressors,  all  opposition  gave  way 
before  him ;  the  masses,  as  one  man,  demanded 
the  emancipation  of  his  long-degraded,  deeply 
injured  race ;  and  millions  of  regenerated  men 
rose  up,  upon  their  broken  chains  and  called  him 
blessed. 

Years  rolled  away,  and  these  poetic  fancies 
faded  "  into  the  light  of  common  day."  The  cold, 
stern,  pitiless  reality  remained.  The  dark  incubus 
of  slavery  yet  rested  down  upon  more  than  three 
millions  of  the  victims  of  democratic  despotism. 
But  the  triumphant  champion  of  the  devoted  race 
had  melted  away,  with  the  morning  mists  of  my 
boyish  conjuring. 

One  morning  in  the  summer  of  1844,  walking 
up  Main-street  in  the  city  of  Hartford,  I  was 
attracted  by  the  movements  of  a  group  of  some 
twenty-five  or  thirty  men  and  women,  in  a  small  re- 
cess, or  court,  by  the  side  of  the  old  Centre  Church. 
They  appeared  to  be  organized  into  an  assembly, 
and  a  tall  mulatto  was  addressing  them.  I  drew 
near  to  listen.  The  speaker  was  recounting  the 
oft-enacted  history  of  a  flight  from  slavery.  With 
his  eye  upon  the  cold,  but  true  north  star,  and  his 
ear  ever  and  anon  bent  to  the  ground,  listening  for 
13* 


150         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

the  "blood-hound's  savage  bay,"  sure-footed  and 
panting,  the  fugitive  was  before  me !  My  attention 
had  been  arrested;  I  was  profoundly  interested. 
The  audience  was  the  American  Anti-slavery 
Society,  then  just  excluded  from  some  of  the 
public  halls  of  the  city,  and  fain  to  content  them- 
selves, after  an  apostolic  sort,  with  the  next  best 
accommodations.  The  orator  was  FREDERICK 
DOUGLASS,  the  most  remarkable  man  of  this 
country,  and  of  this  age;  and  —  may  I  not  dare 
to  add  —  the  almost  complete  fulfilment  of  my 
early  dream ! 

Since  that  day,  through  assiduous  application, 
and  a  varied  experience,  he  has  continued  to 
develop  in  the  same  wonderful  ratio  of  improve- 
ment, which  even  then  distinguished  him  as  a 
prodigy  in  self-education.  Unusually  favored  in 
personal  appearance  and  address,  full  of  generous 
impulse  and  delicate  sensibility,  exuberant  in  play- 
ful wit,  or  biting  sarcasm,  or  stern  denunciation, 
ever  commanding  in  his  moral  attitude,  earnest 
and  impressive  in  manner,  with  a  voice  eminently 
sonorous  and  flexible,  and  gesture  full  of  dramatic 
vivacity,  I  have  many  times  seen  large  audiences 
swayed  at  his  will ;  at  one  moment  convulsed  with 
laughter,  and  at  the  next,  bathed  in  tears ;  now 
lured  with  admiration  of  the  orator,  and  now  with 
indignation  at  the  oppressor,  against  whom  he 
hurled  his  invective.  But  in  my  boyhood's  quasi- 
prophetic  fancy  of  such  a  man  and  his  inimitable , 
success,  I  had  not  counted  upon  one  antagonist, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          151 

whose  reality  and  potency,  the  observation  of  every 
day  now  forces  painfully  upon  me.  I  mean  the 
strange  and  unnatural  prejudice  against  mere  color, 
which  is  so  all-prevalent  in  the  American  breast, 
as  almost  to  nullify  the  influence  of  such  a  man, 
so  pleading ;  while  his  dignity,  his  urbanity,  his 
imperturbable  serenity  and  good  nature,  his  genuine 
purity  and  worth  all  fail,  at  times,  to  secure  him 
from  the  grossest  indignities,  at  the  hands  of  the 
coarse  and  brutal.  Nobody  who  knows  him  will 
be  inclined  to  question  our  estimate  of  his  charac- 
ter, but  it  still  comports  with  the  intelligence  and 
refinement  and  piety  of  a  large  proportion  of 
American  society  to  label  him  "  nigger,"  and  the 
name  itself  invites  to  safe  contumely,  and  irrespon- 
sible violence. 

I  have  spoken  of  Frederick  Douglass  as  an 
interesting  man  —  a  wonderful  man.  Look  at 
him  as  he  stands  to-day  before  this  nation ;  and 
then  contemplate  his  history. 

Begin  with  him  when,  a  little  slave-child,  he  lay 
down  on  his  rude  pallet,  and  that  slave-mother, 
from  a  plantation  twelve  miles  away,  availed  her- 
self of  the  privilege  granted  grudgingly,  of  travel- 
ling the  whole  distance,  after  the  day's  work,  (on 
peril  of  the  lash,  unless  back  again  by  sunrise  to 
her  task,)  that  she  might  lie  there  by  his  side,  and 
sing  him  with  her  low  sweet  song  to  sleep.  "  I  do 
not  recollect,"  says  he,  "  of  ever  seeing  my  mother 
by  the  light  of  day.  She  was  with  me  in  the 
night  She  would  lie  down  with  me,  and  get  me 


152         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

to  sleep,  but  long  before  I  awaked,  she  was  gone." 
How  touching  the  love  of  that  dark -browed  bond- 
woman for  her  boy !  How  precious  must  the  mem- 
ory of  that  dim  but  sweet  remembrance  be  to  him, 
who  though  once  a  vassal,  bound  and  scourged, 
and  still  a  Helot,  proscribed  and  wronged,  may 
not  be  robbed  of  this  dear  token  that  he,  too,  had 
once  a  mother  !  Her  low  sad  lullaby  yet  warps  his 
life's  dark  woof — for  she  watches  over  his  path- 
way now  with  spirit-eyes,  and  still  keeps  singing 
on  in  his  heart,  and  nursing  his  courage  and  his 
patience. 

Follow  him  through  all  the  tempestuous  experi- 
ence of  his  bondage.  His  lashings,  his  longings, 
his  perseverance  in  possessing  himself  of  the  key 
of  knowledge,  which,  after  all,  only  unlocked  to 
him  the  fatal  secret  that  he  was  a  slave,  a  thing  to 
be  bought  and  sold  like  oxen.  Imagine  the  tumult 
of  his  soul,  as  standing  by  the  broad  Chesapeake, 
he  watched  the  receding  vessels,  "  while  they  flew 
on  their  white  wings  before  the  breeze,  and  apos- 
trophized them  as  animated  by  the  living  spirit  of 
freedom ;  "*  or  when  reading  in  a  stray  copy  of  the 

*  "  Our  house  stood  within  a  few  rods  of  the  Chesapeake  bay, 
whose  broad  bosom  was  ever  white  with  sails  from  every  quar- 
ter of  the  habitable  globe.  Those  beautiful  vessels,  robed  in 
purest  white,  so  delightful  to  the  eye  of  freemen,  were  to  me  so 
many  shrouded  ghosts  to  terrify  and  torment  me  with  thoughts 
of  my  wretched  condition.  I  have  often,  in  the  deep  stillness 
of  a  summer's  Sabbath,  stood  all  alone  upon  the  lofty  banks  of 
that  noble  bay,  and  traced,  with  saddened  heart  and  tearful 
eye,  the  countless  number  of  sails  moving  off  to  the  mighty 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          153 

old  "  Columbian  Orator,"  (verily,  all  our  school- 
books  must  be  expurgated  of  the  incendiary  '  peril-- 
ous  stuff'  in  which  they  abound,)  the  "Dialogue 
between  a  Master  and  his  Slave,"  and  Sheridan's 
great  speech  on  Catholic  Emancipation.*  See  to 

ocean.  The  sight  of  these  always  affected  me  powerfully.  My 
thoughts  would  compel  utterance  ;  and  then,  with  no  audience 
but  the  Almighty,  I  would  pour  out  my  soul's  complaint,  in  my 
rude  way,  with  an  apostrophe  to  the  moving  multitude  of 


"  You  are  loosed  from  your  moorings,  and  are  free  ;  I  am 
fast  in  my  chains,  and  am  a  slave  !  You  move  merrily  before 
the  gentle  gale,  and  I  sadly  before  the  bloody  whip !  You  are 
freedom's  swift- winged  angels  that  fly  around  the  world  ;  I  am 
confined  in  bands  of  iron  !  O  that  I  were  free  !  O  that  I  were 
on  one  of  your  gallant  decks,  and  under  your  protecting  wing ! 
Alas  !  betwixt  me  and  you  the  turbid  waters  roll.  Go  on,  go 
on.  O  that  I  could  also  go  !  Could  I  but  swim  !  If  I  could 
fly  !  O,  why  was  I  born  a  man,  of  whom  to  make  a  brute  ! 
The  glad  ship  is  gone ;  she  hides  in  the  dim  distance.  I  am  left 
in  the  hottest  hell  of  unending  slavery.  O  God,  save  me  !  God, 
deliver  me  !  Let  me  be  free  !  Is  there  any  God  ?  Why  am 
I  a  slave  ?  I  will  run  away.  *  *  *  Only  think  of  it ;  one 
hundred  miles  straight  north,  and  I  am  free  !  Try  it  ?  Yes  ! 
God  helping  me,  I  will.  It  cannot  be  that  I  shall  live  and  die 
a  slave.  *  *  *" —  Autobiography  of  Douglass,  pp.  64,  65. 

*  "  There  was  no  getting  rid  of  it  [the  thought  of  his  condi- 
tion]. It  was  pressed  upon  me  by  every  object  within  sight 
or  hearing,  animate  or  inanimate.  The  silver  trump  of  free- 
dom had  roused  my  soul  to  eternal  wakefulness.  Freedom  now 
appeared,  to  disappear  no  more  forever.  It  was  heard  in  every 
sound,  and  seen  in  everything.  It  was  ever  present  to  torment 
me  with  a  sense  of  my  wretched  condition.  I  saw  nothing 
without  seeing  it,  I  heard  nothing  without  hearing  it,  and  felt 
nothing  without  feeling  it.  It  looked  from  every  star ;  it  smiled 


154         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

what  heroic  resistance  his  proud  heart  had  swollen, 
when  he  turned  outright  upon  his  tormentor  — 
pious  Mr.  Corey,  the  "  nigger-breaker  "  —  and  in- 
flicted condign  retribution  on  his  heartless  ribs ; 
"  after  which,"  says  he,  significantly,  "  I  was  never 
whipped  again ;  I  had  several  fights^  but  was  never 
whipped."  Attend  him  in  his  exodus  from  our 
republican  Egypt.  Witness  his  struggles  with 
poverty ;  his  vain  attempts  to  find  employment  at 
his  trade,  as  a  colored  man,  in  the  free  North. 
Behold  him  at  last  emerging  from  his  obscurity  at 
the  Anti-slavery  Convention  in  Nantucket.  Some- 
body, who  is  aware  of  his  extraordinary  natural 
intelligence,  invites  him  to  speak.  Tremblingly  he 
consents.  "  As  soon  as  he  had  taken  his  seat," 
said  Mr.  Garrison,  after  describing  the  tremendous 
effect  of  his  remarks  upon  the  audience,  "  filled 
with  hope  and  admiration,  I  rose  and  declared  that 
Patrick  Henry,  of  revolutionary  fame,  never  made 
a  speech  more  eloquent  in  the  cause  of  liberty, 
than  the  one  we  had  just  listened  to  from  the 
hunted  fugitive." 

That  was  just  eleven  years  ago,  —  and  what  is 
Frederick  Douglass  now  ?  I  would  fain  avoid  the 
language  of  exaggeration.  It  is  ever  a  cruel 
kindness  which  over-praises,  exciting  expectations, 
which  cannot  but  be  disappointed.  But  when,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was 
but  thirteen  years  ago  A  SLAVE,  in  all  the  darkness 

in  every  calm,  breathed  in  every  wind,  and  moved  in  every 
storm."  —  Autobiograqhy,  pp.  40,  41. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         155 

and  disability  of  Southern  bondage,  I  affirm  that 
his  present  character,  attainments,  and  position 
constitute  a  phenomenon  hitherto  perhaps  unpre- 
cedented in  the  history  of  intellectual  and  moral 
achievement,  none  who  know  and  are  competent 
to  weigh  the  facts,  will  account  the  terms  extrava- 
gant. It  is  not  to  be  expected  but  that  his  men- 
tal condition  should  betray  his  early  disadvantages. 
His  information,  though  amazing,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, will  not  of  course  bear  comparison,  in 
fulness  and  accuracy,  with  that  of  men  who  have 
been  accumulating  their  resources  from  childhood. 
In  his  writings,  the  deficiency  of  early  discipline 
is  most  manifest,  rendering  them  diffuse  and  une- 
qual, though  always  interesting,  and  often  exceed- 
ingly effective.  He  is  properly  an  orator.  His 
addresses,  like  those  of  Whitfield,  and  many  other 
popular  speakers,  lose  a  large  proportion  of  their 
effect  in  reading.  They  require  the  living  voice, 
and  the  magnetic  presence  of  the  orator.  But 
even  in  this  respect,  Douglass  is  not  uniform  in 
his  performance,  but  is  quite  dependent  on  his 
surroundings,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  moment. 
But  when,  all  these  consenting,  he  becomes 
thoroughly  possessed  of  his  theme,  and  his  tall 
form  —  six  feet  high  and  straight  as  an  arrow,  — 
his  bearing  dignified  and  graceful,  —  self-posses- 
sed, yet  modest,  —  his  countenance  flexible,  and 
wonderful  in  power  of  expression,  and  his  voice, 
with  its  rich  and  varied  modulation,  are  all  sum- 
moned to  the  work  of  enchantment,  many  a  rapt 


156          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

assembly,  insignificant  in  neither  numbers  nor 
intelligence,  can  testify  to  the  witchery  of  his  elo- 
quence. * 

And,  after  all,  the  moral  features  of  this  interest- 
ing character  constitute  its  principal  charm.  The 
integrity  and  manliness  of  Frederick  Douglass, 
potent  and  acknowledged  where  he  is  at  all  known, 
have  much  to  do  with  his  influence  as  a  popular 
orator.  It  has  been  customary,  with  a  certain 
class  of  Shibboleth-pronouncers  to  class  him  with 
infidels,  but  this  is  only  the  appropriate  and  char- 
acteristic retort  of  a  certain  sort  of  "  highly  respecta- 
ble" Christianity  to  his  uncompromising  denun- 
ciations of  its  hollow  and  selfish  character.  / 
think  Frederick  Douglass  is  a  Christian ;  he  is  a 
gentleman,  I  know.  There  are  few  white  men  of 
my  acquaintance,  who  could  have  borne  so  much 
adulation,  without  losing  the  balance  of  their 
self-appreciation.  Nobody  ever  knew  Frederick 
Douglass  to  over-rate  himself,  or  to  thrust  himself 
anywhere  where  he  did  not  belong,  or  upon  any- 
body who  might  by  any  possibility  object  to  his 
companionship, — unless,  in  the  latter  case,  when 
he  deemed  necessary  the  assertion  of  a  simple 
right.  Whence  he  got  his  retiring  and  graceful 
modesty,  and  his  nice  sense  of  the  minute  proprie- 
ties, —  unless  it  be  somehow  in  his  blood,  —  is  a 
mystery  to  me.  Can  it  be  possible  that  such  re- 
finements are  scourged  into  men  "  down  South  ?  " 
An  illustration  of  this  may  be  seen  in  his 
response  to  those  gentlemen  of  Rochester,  who,  by 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         157 

way  of  gratifying  a  grudge  against  the  Anti- sla- 
very faction  of  their  party,  nominated  Douglass  for 
Congress  in  derision. 

"  GENTLEMEN  :  —  I  have  learned  with  some  sur- 
prise, that  in  the  Whig  Convention  held  in  this 
city  on  Saturday  last,  you  signified,  by  your  votes, 
a  desire  to  make  me  your  representative  in  the 
Legislature  of  this  State.  Never  having,  at  any 
time  that  I  recollect,  thought,  spoken,  or  acted,  in 
any  way,  to  commit  myself  to  either  the  principles 
or  the  policy  of  the  Whig  party ;  but  on  the  con- 
trary, having  always  held,  and  publicly  expressed 
opinions  diametrically  opposed  to  those  held  by 
that  part  of  the  Whig  party  which  you  are  sup- 
posed to  represent,  your  voting  for  me,  I  am  bound 
in  courtesy  to  suppose,  is  founded  in  a  misappre- 
hension of  my  political  sentiments. 

"  Lest  you  should,  at  any  other  time,  commit  a 
similar  blunder,  I  beg  to  state,  once  for  all,  that  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  slavery  question  is  settled, 
and  settled  forever.  I  do  not  believe  that  slave- 
catching  is  either  a  Christian  duty,  or  an  innocent 
amusement.  I  do  not  believe  that  he  who  breaks 
the  arm  of  the  kidnapper,  or  wrests  the  trembling 
captive  from  his  grasp  is  '  a  traitor.'  I  do  not 
believe  that  Daniel  Webster  is  the  saviour  of  the 
Union,  nor  that  the  Union  stands  in  need  of  such 
a  saviour.  I  do  not  believe  that  human  enact- 
ments are  to  be  obeyed  when  they  are  point-blank 
against  the  law  of  the  living  God.  And  believing 
14 


158         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

most  fully,  as   I  do,  the  reverse  of  all  this,  you 
will  easily  believe  me  to  be  a  person  wholly  unfit 
to  receive  the  suffrages  of  gentlemen  holding  the 
opinion  and  favoring  the  policy  of  that  wing  of 
the  Whig  party  denominated  '  the  Silver  Grays.'' 
"  With  all  the  respect  which  your  derision  per- 
mits me  to  entertain  for  you, 
I  am,  gentlemen, 

Your  faithful  fellow-citizen, 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS." 

The  perpetrators  of  the  wanton  and  gratuitous 
insult  which  elicited  this  beautiful  rebuke,  would 
be  sadly  outraged,  were  we  to  insist  on  withhold- 
ing the  title  of  "  Gentlemen "  from  those  who 
could,  on  any  pretence,  trample  on  the  feelings  of 
such  as  they  esteem  their  inferiors.  If  they  half 
begin  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  term, 
much  more  to  feel  its  power,  their  cheeks  must 
have  crimsoned  with  shame,  when  they  saw  their 
own  unprovoked  assault,  contrasted  with  the 
calm  and  self-respectful  serenity  of  this  reply. 

Another  instance  of  this  dignity  under  circum- 
stances of  peculiar  trial,  may  be  found  in  his  own 
account  —  in  the  columns  of  "  Frederick  Douglass' 
paper "  —  of  a  rencontre  with  a  hotel  clerk  in 
Cleveland.  It  is  as  follows  : 

"  At  the  ringing  of  the  morning  bell  for  break- 
fast, I  made  my  way  to  the  table,  supposing  my- 
self included  in  the  call ;  but  I  was  scarcely  seated, 
when  there  stepped  up  to  me  a  young  man,  appa- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         159 

rently  much  agitated,  saying :  "  Sir,  you  must 
leave  this  table."  "  And  why,"  said  I,  "  must  I 
leave  this  table ? "  "I  want  no  controversy  with 
you.  You  must  leave  this  table."  I  replied, 
"  that  I  had  regularly  enrolled  myself  as  a  boarder 
in  that  house  ;  I  expected  to  pay  the  same  charges 
imposed  upon  others ;  and  I  came  to  the  table 
in  obedience  to  the  call  of  the  bell;  and  if  I  left 
the  table  I  must  know  the  reason."  "  We  will 
serve  you  in  your  room.  It  is  against  our  rules." 
"  You  should  have  informed  me  of  your  rules 
earlier.  Where  are  your  rules?  Let  me  see 
them."  "  I  don't  want  any  altercation  with  you. 
You  must  leave  this  table."  "But  have  I  not 
deported  myself  as  a  gentleman  ?  What  have  I 
done  ?  Is  there  any  gentleman  who  objects  to  my 
being  seated  here?"  (There  was  silence  round 
the  table.)  "  Come,  sir,  come,  sir,  you  must  leave 
this  table  at  once."  "  Well,  sir,  I  cannot  leave  it 
unless  you  will  give  me  a  better  reason  than  you 
have  done  for  my  removal."  "  Well,  I  '11  give  you 
a  reason  if  you  '11  leave  the  table  and  go  to  another 
room."  "  That,  sir,  I  will  not  do.  You  have 
invidiously  selected  me  out  of  all  this  company, 
to  be  dragged  from  this  table,  and  have  thereby 
reflected  upon  me  as  a  man  and  a  gentleman ;  and 
the  reason  for  this  treatment  shall  be  as  public  as 
the  insult  you  have  offered."  At  these  remarks, 
my  carrot-headed  assailant  left  me,  as  he  said,  to 
get  help  to  remove  me  from  the  table.  Meanwhile 
I  called  upon  one  of  the  servants  (who  appeared 


160 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


to  wait  upon  me  with  alacrity)  to  help  me  to  a 
cup  of  coffee,  and  assisting  myself  to  some  of  the 
good  things  before  me,  I  quietly  and  thankfully 
partook  of  my  morning  meal  without  further 
annoyance." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  duty  of  Mr.  Doug- 
lass, (and  none  who  know  him  can  for  a  moment 
doubt  what  his  inclination  would  have  been,)  in 
case  the  proscriptive  "rules  of  the  house"  had 
been  previously  made  known  to  him,  the  justice, 
as  well  as  the  gentlemanly  self-possession  of  his 
bearing,  in  relation  to  this  public  outrage,  must,  I 
think,  be  sufficiently  obvious. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.        161 


THE  HEROIC  SLAVE-WOMAN. 


IT  was  my  privilege  to  see  much  of  Edward  S, 
Abdy,  Esq.,  of  England,  during  his  visit  to  our 
country,  in  1833  and  1834.  The  first  time  I  met 
him  was  at  the  house  of  Mr.  James  Forten,  of 
Philadelphia,  in  company  with  two  other  English 
gentlemen,  who  had  come  to  the  United  States, 
commissioned  by  the  British  Parliament  to  exam- 
ine our  systems  of  prison  and  penitentiary  disci- 
pline. Mr.  Abdy  was  interested  in  whatsoever 
affected  the  welfare  of  man.  But  he  was  more 
particularly  devoted  to  the  investigation  of  slavery. 
He  travelled  extensively  in  our  Southern  States, 
and  contemplated  with  his  own  eyes  the  manifold 
abominations  of  our  American  despotism.  He 
was  too  much  exasperated  by  our  tyranny  to  be 
enamoured  of  our  democratic  institutions ;  and  on 
his  return  to  England,  he  published  two  very  sen- 
sible volumes,  that  were  so  little  complimentary  to 
our  nation,  that  our  booksellers  thought  it  not 
worth  their  while  to  republish  them. 

This  warm-hearted  philanthropist  visited  me 
14* 


162         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

several  times  at  my  home  in  Connecticut.  The 
last  afternoon  that  he  was  there,  we  were  sitting 
together  at  my  study  window,  when  our  attention 
was  arrested  by  a  very  handsome  carriage  driving 
up  to  the  hotel  opposite  my  house.  A  gentleman 
and  lady  occupied  the  back  seat ;  and  on  the!  front 
were  two  children  tended  by  a  black  woman,  who 
wore  the  turban,  that  was  then  more  than  now, 
usually  worn  by  slave  women. 

We  hastened  over  to  the  hotel,  and  soon  enter- 
ed into  conversation  with  the  slave-holder.  He 
was  polite,  but  somewhat  nonchalant,  and  defiant 
of  our  sympathy  with  his  victim.  He  readily  ac- 
knowledged, as  slaveholders  of  that  day  generally 
did,  that,  abstractly  considered,  the  enslavement  of 
fellow  men  was  a  great  wrong ;  but  then  he  con- 
tended that  it  had  become  a  necessary  evil,  neces- 
sary to  the  enslaved,  no  less  than  to  the  enslavers ; 
the  former  being  unable  to  do  without  masters,  as 
much  as  the  latter  were  to  do  without  servants. 
And  he  added,  in  a  very  confident  tone,  "  you  are 
at  liberty  to  persuade  our  servant-woman  to  remain 
here,  if  you  can." 

Thus  challenged,  we  of  course  sought  an  inter- 
view with  the  slave ;  and  informed  her  that  having 
been  brought  by  her  master  into  the  free  States, 
she  was,  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  set  at  liberty. 
"  No,  I  am  not,  gentlemen,"  was  her  prompt  reply. 
We  adduced  cases,  and  quoted  authorities  to  es- 
tablish our  assertion  that  she  was  free.  But  she 
significantly  shook  her  head,  and  still  insisted  that 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         163 

the  examples  and  the  legal  decisions  did  not  reach 
her  case.  "  For,"  said  she,  "  I  promised  mistress 
that  I  would  go  back  with  her  and  the  children." 
Mr.  Abdy  undertook  to  argue  with  her  that  such  a 
promise  was  not  binding.  He  had  been  drilled  in 
the  moral  philosophy  of  Dr.  Paley,  and  in  that 
debate  seemed  to  be  possessed  of  its  spirit.  But 
he  failed  to  make  any  visible  impression  upon  the 
woman.  She  had  bound  herself  by  a  promise  to 
her  mistress,  that  she  would  not  leave  her ;  and 
that  promise  had  fastened  upon  her  conscience  an 
obligation,  from  which  she  could  not  be  persuaded, 
that  even  her  natural  right  to  liberty  could  exon- 
erate her.  Mr.  Abdy  at  last  was  impatient  with 
her,  and  said,  in  his  haste,  "  is  it  .possible  that  you 
do  not  wish  to  be  free  ?  "  She  replied  with  solemn 
earnestness,  "  was  there  ever  a  slave  that  did  not 
wish  to  be  free  ?  I  long  for  liberty.  I  will  get  out 
of  slavery,  if  I  can,  the  day  after  I  have  returned, 
but  go  back  I  must,  because  I  promised  that  I 
would."  At  this,  we  desisted  from  our  endeavor 
to  induce  her  to  take  the  boon  that  was,  appar- 
ently to  us,  within  her  reach.  We  could  not  but 
feel  a  profound  respect  for  that  moral  sensibility 
which  would  not  allow  her  to  embrace  even  her 
freedom,  at  the  expense  of  violating  a  promise. 

The  next  morning,  at  an  early  hour,  the  slave- 
holder with  his  wife  and  children  drove  off,  leaving 
the  slave-woman  and  their  heaviest  trunk  to  be 
brought  on  after  them  in  the  stage-coach.  We 
could  not  refrain  from  again  trying  to  persuade 


164          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

her  to  remain  and  be  free.  We  told  her  that  her 
master  had  given  us  leave  to  persuade  her  if  we 
could.  She  pointed  to  the  trunk,  and  to  a  very 
valuable  gold  watch  and  chain,  which  her  mis- 
tress had  committed  to  her  care,  and  insisted  that 
fidelity  to  a  trust  was  of  more  consequence  to 
her  soul  even  than  the  attainment  of  liberty. 
Mr.  Abdy  offered  to  take  the  trunk  and  watch 
into  his  charge,  follow  her  master,  and  deliver 
them  into  his  hands.  But  she  could  not  be  made 
to  see  that  in  this  there  would  be  no  violation 
of  her  duty.  And  then  her  own  person,  that,  too, 
she  had  promised  should  be  returned  to  the  home 
of  her  master ;  and  much  as  she  longed  for  liberty, 
she  longed  for  a  clear  conscience  more. 

Mr.  Abdy  was  astonished,  delighted  at  this  in- 
stance of  heroice  virtue  in  a  poor,  ignorant  slave. 
He  packed  his  trunk,  gave  me  a  hearty  adieu, 
and,  when  the  coach  drove  up,  he  took  his  seat  on 
the  outside  with  the  trunk  and  the  slave  —  chattels 
of  a  Mississippi  slave-holder  —  that  he  might  study 
for  a  few  hours  more  the  morality  of  that  strong- 
hearted  woman,  who  could  not  be  bribed  to  vio- 
late her  promise,  even  by  the  gift  of  liberty. 

It  was  the  last  time  I  saw  Mr.  Abdy,  —  and  it 
was  a  sight  to  be  remembered,  —  he  an  accom- 
plished English  gentleman,  a  Fellow  of  Oxford  or 
Cambridge  University,  riding  on  the  driver's  box 
of  a  stage-coach,  side  by  side  with  an  American 
slave-woman,  that  he  might  learn  more  of  her  his- 
tory and  character. 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

"  Full  many  a  gem,  of  purest  ray  serene, 

The  dark  unfathomed  caves  of  ocean  bear ; 
Full  many  a  flower  is  born  to  blush  unseen, 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

Yours,  respectfully, 


165 


s        ' 


SYRACUSE,  OCT.  9,  1852. 


166         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


KOSSUTH. 


You  ask  me  what  I  think  of  Kossuth.  The 
history  of  Kossuth  is  but  partly  told.  An  opinion 
of  him  now,  is,  of  course,  founded  on  the  past  and 
present.  But  so  decisive  have  been  the  manifesta- 
tions in  regard  to  his  abilities  and  aims,  that  we 
may  confidently  say  he  is  the  great  man  of  the 
age.  I  don't  mean  that  there  is  no  other  man 
who  is  responsible  for  as  great  or  greater  physical 
and  intellectual  endowments  and  education.  We 
measure  men  by  what  they  do,  not  by  what  they 
are  able  to  do.  He  is  great,  because  he  has  mani- 
fested great  thoughts  and  corresponding  deeds. 
In  this  regard  he  has  no  superior. 

When  I  speak  of  Kossuth  as  great,  I  mean  that 
the  divine  elements  of  power,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness are  so  mixed  in  him,  as  to  qualify  him  to 
embrace  the  largest  interests,  and  attract  the  agen- 
cies to  secure  those  interests.  That  his  eye  sees, 
and  his  heart  feels,  and  his  philanthropy  embraces 
a  larger  area,  and  is  acknowledged  by  a  larger  por- 
tion of  the  human  family  than  any  other  living 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         167 

man.  I  do  not  say  there  are  not  men  living  whose 
hearts  are  as  large,  whose  abilities  are  as  great, 
and  whose  virtues  are  as  exalted  as  Kossuth's. 
Men,  too,  whose  great  qualities  under  like  con- 
tingencies would,  and  by  future  contingencies  may, 
brighten  into  a  glory  as  large  as  his.  Nor  would  I 
say  it  does,  not  often  require  as  great,  or  even 
greater  talents  and  virtues  to  accomplish  deeds  of 
humanity  or  patriotism  on  a  theatre  vastly  less 
dazzling  and  imposing.  It  is  not  necessary  to  my 
argument  to  exclude  such  conclusions.  When 
God  decrees  great  events,  he  brings  upon  the 
stage  and  qualifies  the  human  instrumentalities 
by  which  such  events  are  accomplished ;  and  that, 
too,  at  the  very  time  they  are  needed.  We  don't 
know  the  future ;  but  if  we  are  to  measure  the 
present  and  the  past  in  the  life  of  Kossuth,  leaving 
alone  the  shadows  which  coming  events  cast  in  the 
path  of  our  hopes,  we  must  rank  Kossuth  with  the 
greatest,  and  if  we  couple  his  heart  with  his  deeds, 
with  the  best  of  mankind. 

I  am  aware  that  the  opinion  I  here  give  of  the 
great  Magyar,  is  widely  different  from  the  opinions 
of  some  others  for  whom  I  have  very  high  respect. 
Gerrit  Smith  honors  Kossuth ;  but  he  honors  him 
only  as  a  patriot,  a  Christian  patriot.  Professor 
Atler  of  McGranville  College  in  an  oration  that 
does  him  credit  as  a  philosopher  and  orator,  says, 
that  "  he  who  thinks  the  largest  thought  is  the 
ruler  of  the  world,"  —  and  yet  he  dwarfs  the  char- 
acter of  Kossuth  to  the  simple  patriot  of  Hungary. 


168         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

To  my  mind,  these  are  strange  conclusions.  It  is 
the  greatest  thoughts  illustrated  by  corresponding 
action  that  denotes  the  ruler  of  the  world.  It  is 
the  external  manifestation  of  the  mighty  spiritual 
that  demonstrates  the  right  to  rule  mankind. 
Apply  that  rule  to  Kossuth,  and  I  maintain  his 
right  to  the  sceptre  of  the  world. 

The  brotherhood  of  nations  is  an  idea  to  which 
philanthropy  only  could  give  birth.  Its  home  is 
in  the  hearts  of  all  good  men,  and  yet,  until 
Kossuth  came  before  the  world,  that  idea  had 
been  esteemed  so  vast  in  its  circumference,  so  out 
of  the  reach  of  means,  so  far  beyond  the  grasp  of 
present  experience  and  possibility,  that  he  would 
have  been  thought  a  fanatic  or  a  fool  who  attempt- 
ed it.  He,  indeed,  by  power  strictly  personal,  not 
only  seized  upon  it  as  a  practical  thought,  and 
nobly  argued  it,  but  has  actually  and  bravely  en- 
tered upon  the  experiment,  and  forced  it  upon  the 
conceptions  of  the  world,  and  organized,  not  in  our 
country  only,  but  in  Europe,  plans  and  parties  for 
its  realization.  Here  is  not  only  a  great  thought, 
but  a  great  deed.  To  gather  up  the  philanthropic 
minds  or  the  patriot  minds  of  the  world  to  em- 
brace such  an  enterprise  as  not  only  a  dutiful  but 
practicable  scheme,  is  an  achievement  that  leaves 
out  of  sight  any  other  achievement  of  eighteen 
hundred  years. 

It  is  not  the  development  of  abstract  principles 
in  science,  in  philosophy,  or  in  religion,  that  es- 
tablishes the  highest  claim  to  the  world's  gratitude 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         169 

and  admiration.  It  is  the  successful  application 
of  those  principles  to  human  life  and  conduct,  the 
setting  them  to  work  to  restore  the  world  to  the 
shape  and  aspect  which  God  gave  it,  that  demon- 
strates the  God-like  in  man.  It  is  the  manifes- 
tation of  a  great  idea  upon  the  external,  as  God's 
great  thoughts  are  manifested  by  the  landscape, 
the  ocean,  and  the  heavens,  by  which  we  arrive  at 
the  spiritual  power  that  conceived  them.  A  pat- 
riot indeed  I  The  great  Hungarian  did  attempt  to 
link  America  to  his  great  purpose  by  appeals  to 
her  patriotism.  It  was  the  only  common  sentiment 
between  our  country  and  him.  It  is  America's 
loftiest  thought.  Her  beau-ideal  of  public  virtue. 
I  don't  mean  that  there  was  no  Christianity  or 
philanthropy  in  the  United  States  When  Kossuth 
came  amongst  us  ;  but  I  do  mean  that,  as  a  nation, 
we  had  none  of  them.  He  came  on  an  errand  of 
practical  philanthropy ;  to  appeal  to  our  national1 
heart,  and  cause  the  only  cord  of  humanity  in  it 
that  could  be  touched,  to  vibrate  in  unison  with 
his  own  in  behalf  of  the  down-trodden  nations  of 
the  world.  He  wished  to  engage  its  organic 
power  in  behalf  of  national  law.  Had  Kossuth 
appealed  to  any  higher  principle,  he  would  have 
overshot  his  mark.  Love  of  country  is  common 
to  the  Christian  and  to  the  mere  patriot.  In  the 
latter  it  is  only  selfishness,  in  the  former  genuine 
philanthropy.  American  patriotism  was  the  only 
aperture  through  which  he  could  reach  our  nation's 
heart,  to  raise  it  to  the  higher  region  of  philanthropy, 

15 


170          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

and  place  it  in  his  own  bosom,  and  impregnate  it 
with  his  own  holy  sentiments,  that  their  sympa- 
thies might  circulate  together  for  a  common 
brotherhood.  He  represented  Hungary.  He 
appeared  at  our  door  as  an  outraged  brother,  to 
enlist  us  in  behalf  of  a  brother's  rights  and  wrongs. 
He  sought  to  excite  in  the  nation's  bosom  the 
activity  of  a  common  principle,  due  at  all  times, 
and  from  nations  no  less  than  individuals.  It  is 
the  core  of  Christianity,  described  in  these  words. 
"  do  unto  others  as  you  would  have  others  do  unto 
you." 

Our  Washington  had  told  us  "  to  cultivate  peace 
with  all  nations,  and  form  entangling  alliances  with 
none."  Our  sensual  and  short-sighted  statesmen 
construed  the  sentiment  as  the  rule  of  active  power. 
Instead  of  adopting  it  as  Washington  probably 
intended  it,  as  a  rule  of  temporary  policy,  they  in- 
culcated the  notion  that  we  were  to  cut  ourselves 
clear  from  the  family  of  nations,  and  live  only  for 
ourselves.  The  large  patriotism  of  Washington 
they  had  shrunken  to  the  merest  selfishness. 
We  may  well  thank  God  for  the  providence  which 
sent  Kossuth  among  us,  to  relieve  his  fame  from 
the  suspicion  of  having  begot,  and  our  country 
from  the  sin  of  cherishing,  so  weak  and  dishonoring 
a  delusion.  Heaven-assisted  man  only  could  have 
dreamed  of  believing  a  nation  so  securely  blinded. 
Like  the  prophet  of  God,  whose  lips  were  touched 
with  celestial  fire,  he  breathed  upon  the  spell,  and 
it  vanished.  The  nation's  eyes  were  opened.  It 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          171 

saw,  and  all  true  men  admitted,  that  the  sentiment 
was  designed  and  adapted  only  to  our  infancy, 
and,  to  use  his  own  figure,  no  more  fitting  our 
manhood,  than  the  clothes  of  an  infant  are  fitting 
the  full  grown  man. 

Now  I  admit  we  had  philanthropists,  wise  men, 
orators,  and  some  statesmen,  who  asserted  the 
doctrine  of  the  human  brotherhood,  yet  we  had  no 
Kossuth  to  dissolve  (if  I  may  so  speak)  this  Wash- 
ingtonian  delusion.  Kossuth  touched  it  and  it  dis- 
appeared. The  nation  seemed  to  have  come  to  a 
new  birth.  Its  heart,  like  the  rock  in  the  desert 
which  was  touched  by  the  staff  of  the  prophet, 
opened,  and  its  imprisoned  waters  poured  over 
the  world.  We  ah1  felt  as  the  bondman  feels  who 
is  set  free  by  a  strong  man.  From  that  moment 
we  grew  larger,  saw  farther,  and  felt  our  hearts 
moving  over  an  unlimited  area  of  humanity. 
From  that  moment  we  felt  that  a  new  day  was 
dawning.  From  that  moment  the  principle  of  the 
human  brotherhood  struck  its  deep  roots  in  our 
soil,  as  immovable  as  our  mountains,  as  irradi- 
cable  as  our  religion.  Nor  was  it  in  America 
alone  that  this  sentiment  was  then  awakened. 
Touched  by  his  notes,  it  trembled  in  the  bosom  of 
Europe.  The  heart  of  humanity  throbbed  with 
a  common  sympathy  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  Kossuth  and  Mazzini,  crushed  from 
beneath,  ascended  above  the  despotisms  of  the 
world  in  the  clear  upper  sky,  and,  in  sight  of  hea- 
ven and  earth,  reflected  God's  light  and  curse  upon 


3.72  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

them ;  and  called  into  being  the  activities  which 
we  hope  is  to  tumble  them  in  a  common  ruin,  as 
the  precursor  of  the  holy  compact  which  shall 
secure  all  human  rights. 

It  is  objected  that  Kossuth  did  not  denounce 
our  slavery.  The  same  objection  has  equal 
strength  against  the  philanthropy  of  Paul  and 
Jesus.  I  shall  not  dwell  on  this  point.  He  did 
denounce  American  slavery.  The  presence  of 
Kossuth  was  a  killing  rebuke,  his  words  a  con- 
suming fire  to  it.  The  former  is  still  felt  as  an 
incurable  wound,  and  the  latter  still  scorches  to 
the  very  centre  of  its  vitality.  I  have  it  from  high 
authority,  when  Kossuth  first  came  upon  the  soil, 
and  into  the  atmosphere  of  American  slavery,  his 
soul  was  so  shocked  and  disgusted  by  its  offensive- 
ness,  that  he  proposed  to  abandon  his  mission  in 
those  States  where  it  existed,  and  denounce  it  spe- 
cifically ;  and  was  only  deterred  from  doing  so,  by 
his  sense  of  the  more  comprehensive  claims  of  that 
mission,  which  embraced  the  utter  destruction  of 
all  human  oppression.  I  drop  this  topic  with  the 
remark,  that  this  objection,  and  all  objections  to 
his  philanthropy,  within  my  knowledge,  were 
made  antecedent  to  his  inimitable  speech  in  New 
York  city,  in  behalf  of  his  mother  and  sisters,  a 
short  time  before  he  took  his  departure  for  Europe. 
If  there  is  not  Christianity,  philanthropy,  anti- 
slavery  in  that  speech,  we  may  despair  of  finding 
it  in  earth,  or  even  in  the  heavens.  I  have  never 
Tead  anything  so  representative  of  heaven's  mercy, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          173 

or  ange'ls  eloquence,  as  that.  Oh !  I  wish  the 
world  knew  it  by  heart.  Methinks  if  it  did,  all 
wrong  and  oppression  would  disappear  from 
among  men. 

I  was  going  to  speak  of  the  future,  and  of  Maz- 
zini,  the  twin  apostle  of  liberty,  whose  exile  was 
wrung  from  the  heart  of  poor  Italy.  But  the  sub- 
ject exceeds  the  brevity  which  must  govern  me. 
These  rulers  of  the  world  are  linked  with  the 
mighty  events  which  are  fast  becoming  history. 
From  their  hiding-places  in  London,  they  are 
moving  and  controlling  the  passions  which  seem 
ready  to  break  forth  and  obliterate  every  cruel  code 
under  the  sun,  and  hasten  the  time  when  all  men 
shall  feel  as  brethren,  and  mingle  their  hearts  in 
anthems  of  gratitude  and  love. 


SYKACUSE,  Nov.  14,  1852. 
15 


174         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


THE    HEROIC   SLAVE, 


PAKT  I. 

Oh !  child  of  grief,  why  weepest  thou  ? 

Why  droops  thy  sad  and  mournful  brow  ? 
Why  is  thy  look  so  like  despair  I 

What  deep,  sad  sorrow  lingers  there  ? 

THE  State  of  Virginia  is  famous  in  American 
annals  for  the  multitudinous  array  of  her  states- 
men and  heroes.  She  has  been  dignified  by  some 
the  mother  of  statesmen.  History  has  not  been 
sparing  in  recording  their  names,  or  in  blazoning 
their  deeds.  Her  high  position  in  this  respect,  has 
given  her  an  enviable  distinction  among  her  sister 
States.  With  Virginia  for  his  birth-place,  even  a 
man  of  ordinary  parts,  on  account  of  the  general 
partiality  for  her  sons,  easily  rises  to  eminent  sta- 
tions. Men,  not  great  enough  to  attract  special 
attention  in  their  native  States,  have,  like  a  certain 
distinguished  citizen  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
sighed  and  repined  that  they  were  not  born  in 
Virginia.  Yet  not  all  the  great  ones  of  the  Old 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          175 

Dominion  have,  by  the  fact  of  their  birth-place, 
escaped  undeserved  obscurity.  By  some  strange 
neglect,  one  of  the  truest,  manliest,  and  bravest  of 
her  children,  —  one  who,  in  after  years,  will,  I  think, 
command  the  pen  of  genius  to  set  his  merits  forth, 
holds  now  no  higher  place  in  the  records  of  that 
grand  old  Commonwealth  than  is  held  by  a  horse 
or  an  ox.  Let  those  account  for  it  who  can,  but 
there  stands  the  fact,  that  a  man  who  loved  liberty 
as  well  as  did  Patrick  Henry,  —  who  deserved  it 
as  much  as  Thomas  Jefferson,  —  and  who  fought 
for  it  with  a  valor  as  high,  an  arm  as  strong,  and 
against  odds  as  great,  as  he  who  led  all  the  armies 
of  the  American  colonies  through  the  great  war 
for  freedom  and  independence,  lives  now  only  in 
the  chattel  records  of  his  native  State. 

Glimpses  of  this  great  character  are  all  that  can 
now  be  presented.  He  is  brought  to  view  only  by 
a  few  transient  incidents,  and  these  afford  but  par- 
tial satisfaction.  .Like  a  guiding  star  on  a  stormy 
night,  he  is  seen  through  the  parted  clouds  and  the 
howling  tempests;  or,  like  the  gray  peak  of  a 
menacing  rock  on  a  perilous  coast,  he  is  seen  by 
the  quivering  flash  of  angry  lightning,  and  he  again 
disappears  covered  with  mystery. 

Curiously,  earnestly,  anxiously  we  peer  into  the 
dark,  and  wish  even  for  the  blinding  flash,  or  the 
light  of  northern  skies  to  reveal  him.  But  alas !  he 
is  still  enveloped  in  darkness,  and  we  return  from  the 
pursuit  like  a  wearied  and  disheartened  mother, 
(after  a  tedious  and  unsuccessful  search  for  a  lost 


176         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

child,)  who  returns  weighed  down  with  disappoint- 
ment and  sorrow.  Speaking  of  marks,  traces, 
possibles,  and  probabilities,  we  come  before  our 
readers. 

In  the  spring  of  1835,  on  a  Sabbath  morning, 
within  hearing  of  the  solemn  peals  of  the  church 
bells  at  a  distant  village,  a  Northern  traveller 
through  the  State  of  Virginia  drew  up  his  horse  to 
drink  at  a  sparkling  brook,  near  the  edge  of  a  dark 
pine  forest.  While  his  weary  and  thirsty  steed 
drew  in  the  grateful  water,  the  rider  caught  the 
sound  of  a  human  voice,  apparently  engaged  in 
earnest  conversation. 

Following  the  direction  of  the  sound,  he  descried, 
among  the  tall  pines,  the  man  whose  voice  had 
arrested  his  attention.  "  To  whom  can  he  be 
speaking  ?  "  thought  the  traveller.  "  He  seems  to 
be  alone."  The  circumstance  interested  him  much, 
and  he  became  intensely  curious  to  know  what 
thoughts  and  feelings,  or,  it  might  be,  high  aspira- 
tions, guided  those  rich  and  mellow  accents.  Tie- 
ing  his  horse  at  a  short  distance  from  the  brook, 
he  stealthily  drew  near  the  solitary  speaker ;  and, 
concealing  himself  by  the  side  of  a  huge  fallen 
tree,  he  distinctly  heard  the  following  soliloquy :  — 

"  What,  then,  is  life  to  me  ?  it  is  aimless  and 
worthless,  and  worse  than  worthless.  Those 
birds,  perched  on  yon  swinging  boughs,  in  friendly 
conclave,  sounding  forth  their  merry  notes  in 
seeming  worship  of  the  rising  sun,  though  liable 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         177 

to  the  sportsman's  fowling-piece,  are  still  my  su- 
periors. They  live  free,  though  they  may  die 
slaves.  They  fly  where  they  List  by  day,  and 
retire  in  freedom  at  night.  But  what  is  freedom 
to  me,  or  I  to  it  ?  I  am  a  slave,  —  born  a  slave, 
an  abject  slave,  —  even  before  I  made  part  of 
this  breathing  world,  the  scourge  was  platted  for 
my  back ;  the  fetters  were  forged  for  rny  limbs. 
How  mean  a  thing  am  I.  That  accursed  and 
crawling  snake,  that  miserable  reptile,  that  has 
just  glided  into  its  slimy  home,  is  freer  and  better 
off  than  I.  He  escaped  my  blow,  and  is  safe.  But 
here  am  I,  a  man,  —  yes,  a  man  !  —  with  thoughts 
and  wishes,  with  powers  and  faculties  as  far  as 
angel's  flight  above  that  hated  reptile,  —  yet  he  is 
my  superior,  and  scorns  to  own  me  as  his  master, 
or  to  stop  to  take  my  blows.  When  he  saw  my 
uplifted  arm,  he  darted  beyond  my  reach,  and 
turned  to  give  me  battle.  I  dare  not  do  as  much 
as  that.  I  neither  run  nor  fight,  but  do  meanly 
stand,  answering  each  heavy  blow  of  a  cruel  master 
with  doleful  wails  and  piteous  cries.  I  am  galled 
with  irons ;  but  even  these  are  more  tolerable  than 
the  consciousness,  the  galling  consciousness  of 
cowardice  and  indecision.  Can  it  be  that  I  dare 
not  run  away  ?  Perish  the  thought,  I  dare  do  any 
thing  which  may  be  done  by  another.  When  that 
young  man  struggled  with  the  waves  for  life,  and 
others  stood  back  appalled  in  helpless  horror,  did  I 
not  plunge  in,  forgetful  of  life,  to  save  his  ?  The 
raging  bull  from  whom  all  others  fled,  pale  with 


178         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

fright,  did  I  not  keep  at  bay  with  a  single  pitch- 
fork ?  Could  a  coward  do  that  ?  No,  —  no,  —  I 
wrong  myself,  —  I  am  no  coward.  Liberty  I  will 
have,  or  die  in  the  attempt  to  gain  it.  This  work- 
ing that  others  may  live  in  idleness !  This  cringing 
submission  to  insolence  and  curses !  This  living 
under  the  constant  dread  and  apprehension  of 
being  sold  and  transferred,  like  a  mere  brute,  is  too 
much  for  me.  I  will  stand  it  no  longer.  What 
others  have  done,  I  will  do.  These  trusty  legs,  or 
these  sinewy  arms  shall  place  me  among  the  free. 
Tom  escaped  ^  so  can  I.  The  North  Star  will  not 
be  less  kind  to  me  than  to  him.  I  will  follow  it. 
I  will  at  least  make  the  trial.  I  haVe  nothing  to 
lose.  If  1  am  caught,  I  shall  only  be  a  slave.  If  I 
am  shot,  I  shall  only  lose  a  life  which  is  a  burden 
and  a  curse.  If  I  get  clear,  (as  something  tells  me 
I  shall,)  liberty,  the  inalienable  birth-right  of  every 
man,  precious  and  priceless,  will  be  mine.  My 
resolution  is  fixed.  /  shall  be  free." 

At  these  words  the  traveller  raised  his  head 
cautiously  and  noiselessly,  and  caught,  from  his 
hiding-place,  a  full  view  of  the  unsuspecting  speak- 
er. Madison  (for  that  was  the  name  of  our  hero) 
was  standing  erect,  a  smile  of  satisfaction  rippled 
upon  his  expressive  countenance,  like  that  which 
plays  upon  the  face  of  one  who  has  but  just  solved 
a  difficult  problem,  or  vanquished  a  malignant  foe ; 
for  at  that  moment  he  was  free,  at  least  in  spirit. 
The  future  gleamed  brightly  before  him,  and  his 
fetters  lay  broken  at  his  feet  His  air  was  trium- 
phant. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         179 

Madison  was  of  manly  form.  Tall,  symmetrical, 
round,  and  strong.  In  his  movements  he  seemed 
to  combine,  with  the  strength  of  the  lion,  a  lion's 
elasticity.  His  torn  sleeves  disclosed  arms  like 
polished  iron.  His  face  was  "  black,  but  comely." 
His  eye,  lit  with  emotion,  kept  guard  under  a  brow 
as  dark  and  as  glossy  as  the  raven's  wing.  His 
whole  appearance  betokened  Herculean  strength  ; 
yet  there  was  nothing  savage  or  forbidding  in  his 
aspect.  A  child  might  play  in  his  arms,  or  dance 
on  his  shoulders.  A  giant's  strength,  but  not  a 
giant's  heart  was  in  him.  His  broad  mouth  and 
nose  spoke  only  of  good  nature  and  kindness. 
But  his  voice,  that  unfailing  index  of  the  soul, 
though  full  and  melodious,  had  that  in  it  which 
could  terrify  as  well  as  charm.  He  was  just  the 
man  you  would  choose  when  hardships  were  to 
be  endured,  or  danger  to  be  encountered,  —  intelli- 
gent and  brave.  He  had  the  head  to  conceive, 
and  the  hand  to  execute.  In  a  word,  he  was  one 
to  be  sought  as  a  friend,  but  to  be  dreaded  as  an 
enemy. 

As  our  traveller  gazed  upon  him,  he  almost 
trembled  at  the  thought  of  his  dangerous  intrusion. 
Still  he  could  not  quit  the  place.  He  had  long 
desired  to  sound  the  mysterious  depths  of  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  a  slave.  He  was  not, 
therefore,  disposed  to  allow  so  providential  an  op- 
portunity to  pass  unimproved.  He  resolved  to 
hear  more ;  so  he  listened  again  for  those  mellow 
and  mournful  accents  which,  he  says,  made  such  an 


180          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

impression  upon  him  as  can  never  be  erased.  He 
did  not  have  to  wait  long.  There  came  another 
gush  from  the  same  full  fountain ;  now  bitter,  and 
now  sweet.  Scathing  denunciations  of  the  cru- 
elty and  injustice  of  slavery ;  heart-touching  narra- 
tions of  his  own  personal  suffering,  intermingled 
with  prayers  to  the  God  of  the  oppressed  for  help 
and  deliverance,  were  followed  by  presentations 
of  the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  escape,  and 
formed  the  burden  of  his  eloquent  utterances ;  but 
his  high  resolution  clung  to  him,  —  for  he  ended 
each  speech  by  an  emphatic  declaration  of  his  pur- 
pose to  be  free.  It  seemed  that  the  very  repetition 
of  this,  imparted  a  glow  to  his  countenance.  The 
hope  of  freedom  seemed  to  sweeten,  for  a  season, 
the  bitter  cup  of  slavery,  and  to  make  it,  for  a 
time,  tolerable ;  for  when  in  the  very  whirlwind 
of  anguish,  —  when  his  heart's  cord  seemed  screw- 
ed up  to  snapping  tension,  hope  sprung  up  and 
soothed  his  troubled  spirit.  Fitfully  he  would 
exclaim,  "  How  can  I  leave  her  ?  Poor  thing ! 
what  can  she  do  when  I  am  gone  ?  Oh!  oh!  'tis 
impossible  that  I  can  leave  poor  Susan ! " 

A  brief  pause  intervened.  Our  traveller  raised 
his  head,  and  saw  again  the  sorrow-smitten  slave. 
His  eye  was  fixed  upon  the  ground.  The  strong 
man  staggered  under  a  heavy  load.  Recovering 
himself,  he  argued  thus  aloud :  "  All  is  uncertain 
here.  To-morrow's  sun  may  not  rise  before  I  am 
sold,  and  separated  from  her  I  love.  What,  then, 
could  I  do  for  her  ?  I  should  be  in  more  hopeless 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM;         181 

slavery,  and  she  no  nearer  to  liberty,  —  whereas 
if  I  were  free,  —  my  arms  my  own,  —  I  might 
devise  the  means  to  rescue  her." 

This  said,  Madison  cast  around  a  searching 
glance,  as  if  the  thought  of  being  overheard  had 
flashed  across  his  mind.  He  said  no  more,  but, 
with  measured  steps,  walked  away,  and  was  lost 
to  the  eye  of  our  traveller  amidst  the  wildering 
woods. 

Long  after  Madison  had  left  the  ground,  Mr. 
Listwell  (our  traveller)  remained  in  motionless 
silence,  meditating  on  the  extraordinary  revela- 
tions to  which  he  had  listened.  He  seemed  fast- 
ened to  the  spot,  and  stood  half  hoping,  half  fearing 
the  return  of  the  sable  preacher  to  his  solitary 
temple.  The  speech  of  Madison  rung  through 
the  chambers  of  his  soul,  and  vibrated  through  his 
entire  frame.  "  Here  is  indeed  a  man,"  thought 
he,  "of  rare  endowments,  —  a  child  of  God, — 
guilty  of  no  crime  but  the  color  of  his  skin,  — 
hiding  away  from  the  face  of  humanity,  and 
pouring  out  his  thoughts  and  feelings,  his  hopes 
and  resolutions  to  the  lonely  woods ;  to  him  those 
distant  church  bells  have  no  grateful  music.  He 
shuns  the  church,  the  altar,  and  the  great  con- 
gregation of  Christian  worshippers,  and  wanders 
away  to  the  gloomy  forest,  to  utter  in  the  vacant 
air  complaints  and  griefs,  which  the  religion  of  his 
times  and  his  country  can  neither  console  nor 
relieve.  Goaded  almost  to  madness  by  the  sense 
of  the  injustice  done  him,  he  resorts  hither  to  give 
16 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

vent  to  his  pent  up  feelings,  and  to  debate  with 
himself  the  feasibility  of  plans,  plans  of  his  own 
invention,  for  his  own  deliverance.  From  this  hour 
I  am  an  abolitionist.  I  have  seen  enough  and  heard 
enough,  and  I  shall  go  to  my  home  in  Ohio  re- 
solved to  atone  for  my  past  indifference  to  this  ill- 
starred  race,  by  making  such  exertions  as  I  shall 
be  able  to  do,  for  the  speedy  emancipation  of  every 
slave  in  the  land. 


PART  II. 

"  The  gaudy,  blabbling  and  remorseful  day 
Is  crept  into  the  bosom  of  the  sea ; 
And  now  loud-howling  wolves  arouse  the  jades 
That  drag  the  tragic  melancholy  night ; 
Who  with  their  drowsy,  slow,  and  flagging  wings 
Clip  dead  men's  graves,  and  from  their  misty  jaws 
Breathe  foul  contagions,  darkness  in  the  air." 

Shakspeare. 

Five  years  after  the  foregoing  singular  occur- 
rence, in  the  winter  of  1840,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Listwell 
sat  together  by  the  fireside  of  their  own  happy  home, 
in  the  State  of  Ohio.  The  children  were  all  gone 
to  bed.  A  single  lamp  burnt  brightly  on  the  centre- 
table.  All  was  still  and  comfortable  within ;  but 
the  night  was  cold  and  dark ;  a  heavy  wind  sighed 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         183 

and  moaned  sorrowfully  around  the  house  dnd 
barn,  occasionally  bringing  against  the  clattering 
windows  a  stray  leaf  from  the  large  oak  trees  that 
embowered  their  dwelling.  It  was  a  night  for 
strange  noises  and  for  strange  fancies.  A  whole 
wilderness  of  thought  might  pass  through  one's 
mind  during  such  an  evening.  The  smouldering 
embers,  partaking  of  the  spirit  of  the  restless  night, 
became  fruitful  of  varied  and  fantastic  pictures, 
and  revived  many  bygone  scenes  and  old  impres- 
sions. The  happy  pair  seemed  to  sit  in  silent 
fascination,  gazing  on  the  fire.  Suddenly  this 
reverie  was  interrupted  by  a  heavy  growl.  Ordi- 
narily such  an  occurrence  would  have  scarcely 
provoked  a  single  word,  or  excited  the  least  appre- 
hension. But  there  are  certain  seasons  when  the 
slightest  sound  sends  a  jar  through  all  the  subtle 
chambers  of  the  mind ;  and  such  a  season  was  this. 
The  happy  pair  started  up,  as  if  some  sudden 
danger  had  come  upon  them.  The  growl  was 
from  their  trusty  watch -dog. 

"  What  can  it  mean  ?  certainly  no  one  can  be 
out  on  such  a  night  as  this,"  said  Mrs.  Listwell. 

"  The  wind  has  deceived  the  dog,  my  dear ;  he 
has  mistaken  the  noise  of  falling  branches,  brought 
down  by  the  wind,  for  that  of  the  footsteps  of  per- 
sons coming  to  the  house.  I  have  several  times 
to-night  thought  that  I  heard  the  sound  of  foot- 
steps. I  am  sure,  however,  that  it  was  but  the 
wind.  Friends  would  not  be  likely  to  come  out 
at  such  an  hour,  or  such  a  night ;  and  thieves  are 


184          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

too  lazy  and  self-indulgent  to  expose  themselves  to 
this  biting  frost;  but  should  there  be  any  one 
rabout,  our  brave  old  Monte,  who  is  on  the  look- 
out, will  not  be  slow  in  sounding  the  alarm." 

43aying  this  they  quietly  left  the  window,  whither 
they  had  gone  to  learn  the  cause  of  the  menacing 
growl,  and  re-seated  themselves  by  the  fire,  as  if 
reluctant  to  leave  the  slowly  expiring  embers, 
although  the  hour  was  late.  A  few  minutes  only 
intervened  after  resuming  their  seats,  when  again 
their  sober  meditations  were  disturbed.  Their 
faithful  dog  now  growled  and  barked  furiously, 
as  if  assailed  by  an  advancing  foe.  Simultaneous- 
ly the  good  couple  arose,  and  stood  in  mute  ex- 
pectation. The  contest  without  seemed  fierce  and 
violent.  It  was,  however,  soon  over,  —  the  bark- 
ing ceased,  for,  with  true  canine  instinct,  Monte 
quickly  discovered  that  a  friend,  not  an  enemy 
of  the  family,  was  coming  to  the  house,  and  in- 
stead of  rushing  to  repel  the  supposed  intruder,  he 
was  now  at  the  door,  whimpering  and  dancing 
for  the  admission  of  himself  and  his  newly  made 
friend. 

Mr.  Listwell  knew  by  this  movement  that  all 
was  well;  he  advanced  and  opened  the  door, 
and  saw  by  the  light  that  streamed  out  into  the 
darkness,  a  tall  man  advancing  slowly  towards  the 
house,  with  a  stick  in  one  hand,  and  a  smah1 
bundle  in  the  other.  "  It  is  a  traveller,"  thought 
he,  "  who  has  missed  his  way,  and  is  coming  to 
inquire  the  road.  I  am  glad  we  did  not  go  to 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         185 

bed  earlier,  —  I  have  felt  all  the  evening  as  if 
somebody  would  be  here  to-night." 

The  man  had  now  halted  a  short  distance  from 
the  door,  and  looked  prepared  alike  for  flight  or 
battle.  "  Come  in,  sir,  don't  be  alarmed,  you  have 
probably  lost  your  way." 

Slightly  hesitating,  the  traveller  walked  in ;  not, 
however,  without  regarding  his  host  with  a  scruti- 
nizing glance.  "  No,  sir,"  said  he  "  I  have  come  to 
ask  you  a  greater  favor," 

Instantly  Mr.  Listwell  exclaimed,  (as  the  recol- 
lection of  the  Virginia  forest  scene  flashed  upon 
him,)  "  Oh,  sir,  I  know  not  your  name,  but  I  have 
seen  your  face,  and  heard  your  voice  before.  I 
am  glad  to  see  you.  I  know  all.  You  are  flying 
for  your  liberty,  —  be  seated,  —  be  seated,  —  ban- 
ish all  fear.  You  are  safe  under  my  roof." 

This  recognition,  so  unexpected,  rather  discon- 
certed and  disquieted  the  noble  fugitive.  The 
timidity  and  suspicion  of  persons  escaping  from 
slavery  are  easily  awakened,  and  often  what  is 
intended  to  dispel  the  one,  and  to  allay  the  other, 
has  precisely  the  opposite  effect.  It  was  so  in 
this  case.  Quickly  observing  the  unhappy  impres- 
sion made  by  his  words  and  action,  Mr.  Listwell 
assumed  a  more  quiet  and  inquiring  aspect,  and 
finally  succeeded  in  removing  the  apprehensions 
which  his  very  natural  and  generous  salutation 
had  aroused. 

Thus  assured,  the  stranger  said,  "  Sir,  you  have 
rightly  guessed,  I  am,  indeed,  a  fugitive  from  sla- 
16* 


186         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

very.  My  name  is  Madison,  —  Madison  "Washing- 
ton my  mother  used  to  call  me.  I  am  on  my 
way  to  Canada,  where  I  learn  that  persons  of 
my  color  are  protected  in  all  the  rights  of  men ; 
and  my  object  in  calling  upon  you  was,  to  beg 
the  privilege  of  resting  my  weary  limbs  for  the 
night  in  your  barn.  It  was  my  purpose  to  have 
continued  my  journey  till  morning ;  but  the  pierc- 
ing cold,  and  the  frowning  darkness  compelled  me 
to  seek  shelter ;  and,  seeing  a  light  through  the 
lattice  of  your  window,  I  was  encouraged  to  come 
here  to  beg  the  privilege  named.  You  will  do  me 
a  great  favor  by  affording  me  shelter  for  the 
night," 

"  A  resting-place,  indeed,  sir,  you  shall  have ; 
not,  however,  in  my  barn,  but  in  the  best  room  of 
my  house.  Consider  yourself,  if  you  please,  under 
the  roof  of  a  friend ;  for  such  I  am  to  you,  and  to 
all  your  deeply  injured  race." 

While  this  introductory  conversation  was  going 
on,  the  kind  lady  had  revived  the  fire,  and  was 
diligently  preparing  supper ;  for  she,  not  less  than 
her  husband,  felt  for  the  sorrows  of  the  oppressed 
and  hunted  ones  of  earth,  and  was  always  glad 
of  an  opportunity  to  do  them  a  service.  A  boun- 
tiful repast  was  quickly  prepared,  and  the  hungry 
and  toil-worn  bondman  was  cordially  invited  to 
partake  thereof.  Gratefully  he  acknowledged  the 
favor  of  his  benevolent  benefactress ;  but  appeared 
scarcely  to  understand  what  such  hospitality  could 
mean.  It  was  the  first  time  in  his  life  that  he  had 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          187 

met  so  humane  and  friendly  a  greeting  at  the 
hands  of  persons  whose  color  was  unlike  his  own ; 
yet  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  doubt  the  charita- 
bleness of  his  new  friends,  or  the  genuineness  of 
the  welcome  so  freely  given ;  and  he  therefore,  with 
many  thanks,  took  his  seat  at  the  table  with  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Listwell,  who,  desirous  to  make  him  feel 
at  home,  took  a  cup  of  tea  themselves,  while  urg- 
ing upon  Madison  the  best  that  the  house  could 
afford. 

Supper  over,  all  doubts  and  apprehensions  ban- 
ished, the  three  drew  around  the  blazing  fire,  and 
a  conversation  commenced  which  lasted  till  long 
after  midnight. 

"  Now,"  said  Madison  to  Mr.  Listwell,  "  I  was 
a  little  surprised  and  alarmed  when  I  came  in,  by 
what  you  said ;  do  tell  me,  sir,  why  you  thought 
you  had  seen  my  face  before,  and  by  what  you 
knew  me  to  be  a  fugitive  from  slavery ;  for  I  am 
sure  that  I  never  was  before  in  this  neighborhood, 
and  I  certainly  sought  to  conceal  what  I  supposed 
to  be  the  manner  of  a  fugitive  slave." 

Mr.  Listwell  at  once  frankly  disclosed  the  secret ; 
describing  the  place  where  he  first  saw  him ;  re- 
hearsing the  language  which  he  (Madison)  had 
used ;  referring  to  the  effect  which  his  manner  and 
speech  had  made  upon  him ;  declaring  the  resolution 
he  there  formed  to  be  an  abolitionist ;  telling  how 
often  he  had  spoken  of  the  circumstance,  and  the 
deep  concern  he  had  ever  since  felt  to  know  what 
had  become  of  him ;  and  whether  he  had  carried 


188          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM* 

out  the  purpose  to  make  his  escape,  as  in  the 
woods  he  declared  he  would  do. 

"  Ever  since  that  morning,"  said  Mr.  Listwell, 
"  you  have  seldom  been  absent  from  my  mind,  and 
though  now  I  did  not  dare  to  hope  that  I  should 
ever  see  you  again,  I  have  often  wished  that  such 
might  be  my  fortune ;  for,  from  that  hour,  your 
face  seemed  to  be  daguerreotyped  on  my  memory." 

Madison  looked  quite  astonished,  and  felt 
amazed  at  the  narration  to  which  he  had  listened. 
After  recovering  himself  he  said,  "  I  well  remem- 
ber that  morning,  and  the  bitter  anguish  that 
wrung  my  heart ;  I  will  state  the  occasion  of  it. 
I  had,  on  the  previous  Saturday,  suffered  a  cruel 
lashing;  had  been  tied  up  to  the  limb  of  a  tree, 
with  my  feet  chained  together,  and  a  heavy  iron 
bar  placed  between  my  ankles.  Thus  suspended, 
I  received  on  my  naked  back  forty  stripes,  and 
was  kept  in  this  distressing  position  three  or  four 
hours,  and  was  then  let  down,  only  to  have  my 
torture  increased ;  for  my  bleeding  back,  gashed  by 
the  cow-skin,  was  washed  by  the  overseer  with  old 
brine,  partly  to  augment  my  suffering,  and  partly, 
as  he  said,  to  prevent  inflammation.  My  crime 
was  that  I  had  stayed  longer  at  the  mill,  the  day 
previous,  than  it  was  thought  I  ought  to  have 
done,  which,  I  assured  my  master  and  the  overseer, 
was  no  fault  of  mine ;  but  no  excuses  were  al- 
lowed. (  Hold  your  tongue,  you  impudent  rascal,' 
met  my  every  explanation.  Slave-holders  are  so 
imperious  when  their  passions  are  excited,  as  to 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM,        189 

construe  every  word  of  the  slave  into  insolence. 
I  could  do  nothing  but  submit  to  the  agonizing 
infliction.  Smarting  still  from  the  wounds,  as  well 
as  from  the  consciousness  of  being  whipt  for  no 
cause,  I  took  advantage  of  the  absence  of  my 
master,  who  had  gone  to  church,  to  spend  the  time 
in  the  woods,  and  brood  over  my  wretched  lot. 
Oh,  sir,  I  remember  it  well,  —  and  can  never  for- 
get it." 

"  But  this  was  five  years  ago ;  where  have  you 
been  since?" 

"  I  will  try  to  tell  you,"  said  Madison.  "  Just 
four  weeks  after  that  Sabbath  morning,  I  gathered 
up  the  few  rags  of  clothing  I  had,  and  started,  as 
I  supposed,  for  the  North  and  for  freedom.  I 
must  not  stop  to  describe  my  feelings  on  taking 
this  step.  It  seemed  like  taking  a  leap  into  the 
dark.  The  thought  of  leaving  my  poor  wife  and 
two  little  children  caused  me  indescribable  anguish ; 
but  consoling  myself  with  the  reflection  that  once 
free,  I  could,  possibly,  devise  ways  and  means  to 
gain  their  freedom  also,  I  nerved  myself  up  to 
make  the  attempt.  I  started,  but  ill-luck  attended 
me ;  for  after  being  out  a  whole  week,  strange  to 
say,  I  still  found  myself  on  my  master's  grounds ; 
the  third  night  after  being  out,  a  season  of  clouds 
and  rain  set  in,  wholly  preventing  me  from  seeing 
the  North  Star,  which  I  had  trusted  as  my  guide, 
not  dreaming  that  clouds  might  intervene  be- 
tween us.  • 

"  This  circumstance  was  fatal  to  my  project,  for 


190         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

in  losing  my  star,  I  lost  my  way ;  so  when  I  sup- 
posed I  was  far  towards  the  North,  and  had 
almost  gained  my  freedom,  I  discovered  myself  at 
the  very  point  from  which  I  had  started.  It  was 
a  severe  trial,  for  I  arrived  at  home  in  great  desti- 
tution ;  my  feet  were  sore,  and  in  travelling  in  the 
dark,  I  had  dashed  my  foot  against  a  stump,  and 
started  a  nail,  and  lamed  myself.  I  was  wet  and 
cold ;  one  week  had  exhausted  all  my  stores ;  and 
when  I  landed  on  my  master's  plantation,  with  all 
my  work  to  do  over  again, — hungry,  tired,  lame,  and 
bewildered,  —  I  almost  cursed  the  day  that  I  was 
born.  In  this  extremity  I  approached  the  quarters. 
I  did  so  stealthily^  although  in  my  desperation  I 
hardly  cared  whether  I  was  discovered  or  not. 
Peeping  through  the  rents  of  the  quarters,  I  saw 
my  fellow-slaves  seated  by  a  warm  fire,  merrily 
passing  away  the  time,  as  though  their  hearts  knew 
no  sorrow.  Although  I  envied  their  seeming  con- 
tentment, all  wretched  as  I  was,  I  despised  the 
cowardly  acquiescence  in  their  own  degradation 
which  it  implied,  and  felt  a  kind  of  pride  and 
glory  in  my  own  desperate  lot.  I  dared  not  enter 
the  quarters,  —  for  where  there  is  seeming  content- 
ment with  slavery,  there  is  certain  treachery  to 
freedom.  I  proceeded  towards  the  great  house,  in 
the  hope  of  catching  a  glimpse  of  my  poor  wife, 
whom  I  knew  might  be  trusted  with  my  secrets 
even  on  the  scaffold.  Just  as  I  reached  the  fence 
twhich  divided  the  field  from  the  garden,  I  saw  a 
woman  in  the  yard,  who  in  the  darkness  I  took  to 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         191 

be  my  wife ;  but  a  nearer  approach  told  me  it  was 
not  she.  I  was  about  to  speak ;  had  I  done  so,  I 
would  not  have  been  here  this  night ;  for  an  alarm 
would  have  been  sounded,  and  the  hunters  been 
put  on  my  track.  Here  were  hunger,  cold,  thirst, 
disappointment,  and  chagrin,  confronted  only  by 
the  dim  hope  of  liberty.  I  tremble  to  think  of  that 
dreadful  hour.  To  face  the  deadly  cannon's  mouth 
in  warm  blood  unterrified,  is,  I  think,  a  small 
achievement,  compared  with  a  conflict  like  this 
with  gaunt  starvation.  The  gnawings  of  hunger 
conquers  by  degrees,  till  all  that  a  man  has  he 
would  give  in  exchange  for  a  single  crust  of  bread. 
Thank  God,  I  was  not  quite  reduced  to  this  extrem- 
ity. 

"  Happily  for  me,  before  the  fatal  moment  of  utter 
despair,  my  good  wife  made  her  appearance  in  the 
yard.  It  was  she ;  I  knew  her  step.  All  was  well 
now.  I  was,  however,  afraid  to  speak,  lest  I  should 
frighten  her.  Yet  speak  I  did ;  and,  to  my  great 
joy,  my  voice  was  known.  Our  meeting  can  be 
more  easily  imagined  than  described.  For  a  time 
hunger,  thirst,  weariness,  and  lameness  were  for- 
gotten. But  it  was  soon  necessary  for  her  to  return 
to  the  house.  She  being  a  house-servant,  her 
absence  from  the  kitchen,  if  discovered,  might  have 
excited  suspicion.  Our  parting  was  like  tearing 
the  flesh  from  my  bones ;  yet  it  was  the  part  of 
wisdom  for  her  to  go.  She  left  me  with  the  pur- 
pose of  meeting  me  at  midnight  in  the  very  forest 
where  you  last  saw  me.  She  knew  the  place  well, 


192 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


as  one  of  my  melancholy  resorts,  and  could  easily 
find  it,  though  the  night  was  dark. 

"  I  hastened  away,  therefore,  and  concealed 
myself,  to  await  the  arrival  of  my  good  angel.  As 
I  lay  there  among  the  leaves,  I  was  strongly  tempt- 
ed to  return  again  to  the  house  of  my  master  and 
give  myself  up;  but  remembering  my  solemn 
pledge  on  that  memorable  Sunday  morning,  I 
was  able  to  linger  out  the  two  long  hours  between 
ten  and  midnight.  I  may  well  call  them  long 
hours.  I  have  endured  much  hardship;  I  have 
encountered  many  perils ;  but  the  anxiety  of  those 
two  hours,  was  the  bitterest  I  ever  experienced. 
True  to  her  word,  my  wife  came  laden  with  pro- 
visions, and  we  sat  down  on  the  side  of  a  log,  at 
that  dark  and  lonesome  hour  of  the  night.  I  can- 
not say  we  talked ;  our  feelings  were  too  great  for 
that;  yet  we  came  to  an  understanding  that  I 
should  make  the  woods  my  home,  for  if  I  gave 
myself  up,  I  should  be  whipped  and  sold  away ; 
and  if  I  started  for  the  North,  I  should  leave  a 
wife  doubly  dear  to  me.  We  mutually  deter- 
mined, therefore,  that  I  should  remain  in  the 
vicinity.  In  the  dismal  swamps  I  lived,  sir,  five 
long  years,  —  a  cave  for  my  home  during  the  day. 
I  wandered  about  at  night  with  the  wolf  and  the 
bear,  —  sustained  by  the  promise  that  my  good 
Susan  would  meet  me  in  the  pine  woods  at  least 
once  a  week.  This  promise  was  redeemed,  I 
assure  you,  to  the  letter,  greatly  to  my  relief.  I 
had  partly  become  contented  with  my  mode  of 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          193 

life,  and  had  made  up  my  mind  to  spend  my  days 
there ;  but  the  wilderness  that  sheltered  me  thus 
long  took  fire,  and  refused  longer  to  be  my  hiding- 
place. 

"  I  will  not  harrow  up  your  feelings  by  portray- 
ing the  terrific  scene  of  this  awful  conflagration. 
There  is  nothing  to  which  I  can  liken  it.  It  was 
horribly  and  indescribably  grand.  The  whole 
world  seemed  on  fire,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that 
the  day  of  judgment  had  come ;  that  the  burning 
bowels  of  the  earth  had  burst  forth,  and  that  the 
end  of  all  things  was  at  hand.  Bears  and  wolves, 
scorched  from  their  mysterious  hiding-places  in 
the  earth,  and  all  the  wild  inhabitants  of  the  untrod- 
den forest,  filled  with  a  common  dismay,  ran  forth, 
yelling,  howling,  bewildered  amidst  the  smoke  and 
flame.  The  very  heavens  seemed  to  rain  down 
fire  through  the  towering  trees;  it  was  by  the 
merest  chance  that  I  escaped  the  devouring  ele- 
ment. Running  before  it,  and  stopping  occasion- 
ally to  take  breath,  I  looked  back  to  behold  its 
frightful  ravages,  and  to  drink  in  its  savage  magnifi- 
cence. It  was  awful,  thrilling,  solemn,  beyond 
compare.  When  aided  by  the  fitful  wind,  the 
merciless  tempest  of  fire  swept  on,  sparkling,  creak- 
ing, cracking,  curling,  roaring,  out-doing  in  its 
dreaclful  splendor  a  thousand  thunderstorms  at 
once.  From  tree  to  tree  it  leaped,  swallowing 
them  up  in  its  lurid,  baleful  glare ;  and  leaving  them 
leafless,  limbless,  charred,  and  lifeless  behind.  The 
scene  was  overwhelming,  stunning,  —  nothing  was 
17 


194  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

spared,  —  cattle,  tame  and  wild,  herds  of  swine  and 
of  deer,  wild  beasts  of  every  name  and  kind,  — huge 
night-birds,  bats,  and  owls,  that  had  retired  to  their 
homes  in  lofty  tree-tops  to  rest,  perished  in  that 
fiery  storm.  The  long-winged  buzzard  and  croak- 
ing raven  mingled  their  dismal  cries  with  those  of 
the  countless  myriads  of  small  birds  that  rose  up 
to  the  skies,  and  were  lost  to  the  sight  in  clouds 
of  smoke  and  flame.  Oh,  I  shudder  when  I  think 
of  it !  Many  a  poor  wandering  fugitive,  who,  like 
myself,  had  sought  among  wild  beasts  the  mercy 
denied  by  our  fellow  men,  saw,  in  helpless  con- 
sternation, his  dwelling-place  and  city  of  refuge 
reduced  to  ashes  forever.  It  was  this  grand  con- 
flagration that  drove  me  hither ;  I  ran  alike  from 
fire  and  from  slavery." 

After  a  slight  pause,  (for  both  speaker  and 
hearers  were  deeply  moved  by  the  above  recital,) 
Mr.  Listwell,  addressing  Madison,  said,  "  If  it 
does  not  weary  you  too  much,  do  tell  us  some- 
thing of  your  journeyings  since  this  disastrous 
burning,  —  we  are  deeply  interested  in  everything 
which  can  throw  light  on  the  hardships  of  persons 
escaping  from  slavery ;  we  could  hear  you  talk  all 
night ;  are  there  no  incidents  that  you  could  relate 
of  your  travels  hither  ?  or  are  they  such  that  you 
do  not  like  to  mention  them." 

"  For  the  most  part,  sir,  my  course  has  been 
uninterrupted;  and,  considering  the  circumstances, 
at  times  even  pleasant.  I  have  suffered  little  for 
want  of  food ;  but  I  need  not  tell  you  how  I  got 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          195 

it.  Your  moral  code  may  differ  from  mine,  as 
your  customs  and  usages  are  different.  The  fact 
is,  sir,  during  my  flight,  I  felt  myself  robbed  by 
society  of  all  my  just  rights;  that  I  was  in  an 
enemy's  land,  who  sought  both  my  life  and  my 
liberty.  They  had  transformed  me  into  a  brute ; 
made  merchandise  of  my  body,  and,  for  all  the  pur- 
poses of  my  flight,  turned  day  into  night,  —  and 
guided  by  my  own  necessities,  and  in  contempt  of 
their  conventionalities,  I  did  not  scruple  to  take 
bread  where  I  could  get  it." 

"  And  just  there  you  were  right,"  said  Mr.  List- 
well  ;  "  I  once  had  doubts  on  this  point  myself, 
but  a  conversation  with  Gerrit  Smith,  (a  man,  by 
the  way,  that  I  wish  you  could  see,  for  he  is  a 
devoted  friend  of  your  race,  and  I  know  he  would 
receive  you  gladly,)  put  an  end  to  all  my  doubts 
on  this  point.  But  do  not  let  me  interrupt  you." 

"  I  had  but  one  narrow  escape  during  my  whole 
journey,"  said  Madison. 

"  Do  let  us  hear  of  it,"  said  Mi*.  Listwell. 

"  Two  weeks  ago,"  continued  Madison,  "  after 
travelling  all  night,  I  was  overtaken  by  daybreak, 
in  what  seemed  to  me  an  almost  interminable 
wood.  I  deemed  it  unsafe  to  go  farther,  and,  as 
usual,  I  looked  around  for  a  suitable  tree  in  which 
to  spend  the  day.  I  liked  one  with  a  bushy  top, 
and  found  one  just  to  my  mind.  Up  I  climbed, 
and  hiding  myself  as  well  as  I  could,  I,  with 
this  strap,  (pulling  one  out  of  his  old  coat-pocket,) 
lashed  myself  to  a  bough,  and  flattered  myself  that 


196          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

I  should  get  a  good  night's  sleep  that  day ;  but  in 
this  I  was  soon  disappointed.  I  had  scarcely  got 
fastened  to  my  natural  hammock,  when  I  heard 
the  voices  of  a  number  of  persons,  apparently 
approaching  the  part  of  the  woods  where  I  was. 
Upon  my  word,  sir,  I  dreaded  more  these  human 
voices  than  I  should  have  done  those  of  wild 
beasts.  I  was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do.  If 
I  descended,  I  should  probably  be  discovered  by 
the  men ;  and  if  they  had  dogs  I  should,  doubt- 
less, be  '  treed?  It  was  an  anxious  moment,  but 
hardships  and  dangers  have  been  the  accompani- 
ments of  my  life ;  and  have,  perhaps,  imparted  to 
me  a  certain  hardness  of  character,  which,  to  some 
extent,  adapts  me  to  them.  In  my  present  predi- 
cament, I  decided  to  hold  my  place  in  the  tree-top, 
and  abide  the  consequences.  But  here  I  must 
disappoint  you ;  for  the  men,  who  were  all  colored, 
halted  at  least  a  hundred  yards  from  me, "and 
began  with  their  axes,  in  right  good  earnest,  to 
attack  the  trees.  The  sound  of  their  laughing 
axes  was  like  the  report  of  as  many  well-charged 
pistols.  By  and  by  there  came  down  at  least  a 
dozen  trees  with  a  terrible  crash.  They  leaped 
upon  the  fallen  trees  with  an  air  of  victory.  I 
could  see  no  dog  with  them,  and  felt  myself  com- 
paratively safe,  though  I  could  riot  forget  the  pos- 
sibility that  some  freak  or  fancy  might  bring  the 
axe  a  little  nearer  my  dwelling  than  comported 
with  my  safety. 

"  There  was  no  sleep  for  me  that  day,  and  I 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         197 

wished  for  night.  You  may  imagine  that  the 
thought  of  having  the  tree  attacked  under  me  was 
far  from  agreeable,  and  that  it  very  easily  kept  me 
on  the  look-out.  The  day  was  not  without  diver- 
sion. The  men  at  work  seemed  to  be  a  gay  set ; 
and  they  would  often  make  the  woods  resound 
with  that  uncontrolled  laughter  for  which  we,  as  a 
race,  are  remarkable.  I  held  my  place  in  the  tree 
till  sunset,  —  saw  the  men  put  on  their  jackets  to 
be  off.  I  observed  that  all  left  the  ground  except 
one,  whom  I  saw  sitting  on  the  side  of  a  stump, 
with  his  head  bowed,  and  his  eyes  apparently  fixed 
on  the  ground.  I  became  interested  in  him.  After 
sitting  in  the  position  to  which  I  have  alluded  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes,  he  left  the  stump,  walked 
directly  towards  the  tree  in  which  I  was  secreted, 
and  halted  almost  under  the  same.  He  stood  for 
a  moment  and  looked  around,  deliberately  and 
reverently  took  off  his  hat,  by  which  I  saw  that  he 
was  a  man  in  the  evening  of  life,  slightly  bald  and 
quite  gray.  After  laying  down  his  hat  carefully, 
he  knelt  and  prayed  aloud,  and  such  a  prayer,  the 
most  fervent,  earnest,  and  solemn,  to  which  I  think 
I  ever  listened.  After  reverently  addressing  the 
Almighty,  as  the  all-wise,  all-good,  and  the  com- 
mon Father  of  all  mankind,  he  besought  God  for 
grace,  for  strength,  to  bear  up  under,  and  to  endure, 
as  a  good  soldier,  all  the  hardships  and  trials  which 
beset  the  journey  of  life,  and  to  enable  him  to  live 
in  a  manner  which  accorded  with  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  His  soul  now  broke  out  in  humble  suppli- 

16* 


198          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

cation  for  deliverance  from  bondage.  <  O  thou,' 
said  he,  'that  hearest  the  raven's  cry,  take  pity 
on  poor  me !  O  deliver  me !  O  deliver  me !  in 
mercy,  O  God,  deliver  me  from  the  chains  and 
manifold  hardships  of  slavery !  With  thee,  O 
Father,  all  things  are  possible.  Thou  canst  stand 
and  measure  the  earth.  Thou  hast  beheld  and 
drove  asunder  the  nations,  —  all  power  is  in  thy 
hand,  —  thou  didst  say  of  old,  "  I  have  seen  the 
affliction  of  my  people,  and  am  come  to  deliver 
them,"  —  Oh  look  down  upon  our  afflictions,  and 
have  mercy  upon  us.'  But  I  cannot  repeat  his 
prayer,  nor  can  I  give  you  an  idea  of  its  deep 
pathos.  I  had  given  but  little  attention  to  religion, 
and  had  but  little  faith  in  it;  yet,  as  the  old  man 
prayed,  I  felt  almost  like  coming  down  and  kneel  by 
his  side,  and  mingle  my  broken  complaint  with  his. 

"  He  had  already  gained  my  confidence  ;  as  how 
could  it  be  otherwise  ?  I  knew  enough  of  religion 
to  know  that  the  man  who  prays  in  secret  is  far 
more  likely  to  be  sincere  than  he  who  loves  to  pray 
standing  in  the  street,  or  in  the  great  congregation. 
When  he  arose  from  his  knees,  like  another  Zacheus, 
I  came  down  from  the  tree.  He  seemed  a  little 
alarmed  at  first,  but  I  told  him  my  story,  and  the 
good  man  embraced  me  in  his  arms,  and  assured 
me  of  his  sympathy. 

"  I  was  now  about  out  of  provisions,  and  thought 
I  might  safely  ask  him  to  help  me  replenish  my 
store.  He  said  he  had  no  money;  but  if  he  had, 
he  would  freely  give  it  me.  I  told  him  I  had  one 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          199 

dollar ;  it  was  all  the  money  I  had  in  the  world. 
I  gave  it  to  him,  and  asked  him  to  purchase  some 
crackers  and  cheese,  and  to  kindly  bring  me  the 
balance ;  that  I  would  remain  in  or  near  that  place, 
,and  would  come  to  him  on  his  return,  if  he  would 
whistle.  He  was  gone  only  about  an  hour.  Mean- 
while, from  some  cause  or  other,  I  know  not  what, 
(but  as  you  shah1  see  very  wisely,)  I  changed  my 
place.  On  his  return  I  started  to  meet  him ;  but 
it  seemed  as  if  the  shadow  of  approaching  danger 
fell  upon  my  spirit,  and  checked  my  progress.  In 
a  very  few  minutes,  closely  on  the  heels  of  the  old 
man,  I  distinctly  sow  fourteen  men,  with  something 
like  guns  in  their  hands." 

"  Oh  !  the  old  wretch !  "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Listwell 
"  he  had  betrayed  you,  had  he  ?  " 

"  I  think  not,"  said  Madison,  "  I  cannot  believe 
that  the  old  man  was  to  blame.  He  probably 
went  into  a  store,  asked  for  the  articles  for  which 
I  sent,  and  presented  the  bill  I  gave  him  ;  and  it  is 
so  unusual  for  slaves  in  the  country  to  have  money, 
that  fact,  doubtless,  excited  suspicion,  and  gave 
rise  to  inquiry.  I  can  easily  believe  that  the  truth- 
fulness of  the  old  man's  character  compelled  him 
to  disclose  the  facts ;  and  thus  were  these  blood- 
thirsty men  put  on  my  track.  Of  course  I  did 
not  present  myself;  but  hugged  my  hiding-place 
securely.  If  discovered  and  attacked,  I  resolved 
to  sell  my  life  as  dearly  as  possible. 

"  After  searching  about  the  woods  silently  for  a 
time,  the  whole  company  gathered  around  the  old 


200         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

man  ;  one  charged  him  with  lying,  and  called  him 
an  old  villain ;  said  he  was  a  thief ;  charged  him 
with  stealing  money ;  said  if  he  did  not  instantly 
tell  where  he  got  it,  they  would  take  the  shirt  from 
ais  old  back,  and  give  him  thirty-nine  lashes. 

"  '  I  did  not  steal  the  money,'  said  the  old  man, 
it  was  given  me,  as  I  told  you  at  the  store ;  and 
if  the  man  who  gave  it  me  is  not  here,  it  is  not 
my  fault.' 

"  4  Hush !  you  lying  old  rascal ;  we  '11  make  you 
smart  for  it.  You  shall  not  leave  this  spot  until 
you  have  told  where  you  got  that  money.' 

"  They  now  took  hold  of  him,  and  began  to  strip 
him  ;  while  others  went  to  get  sticks  with  which 
to  beat  him.  I  felt,  at  the  moment,  like  rushing  out 
in  the  midst  of  them ;  but  considering  that  the  old 
man  would  be  whipped  the  more  for  having  aided 
a  fugitive  slave,  and  that,  perhaps,  in  the  melee  he 
might  be  killed  outright,  I  disobeyed  this  impulse. 
They  tied  him  to  a  tree,  and  began  to  whip  him. 
My  own  flesh  crept  at  every  blow,  and  I  seem  to 
hear  the  old  man's  piteous  cries  even  now.  They 
laid  thirty-nine  lashes  on  his  bare  back,  and  were 
going  to  repeat  that  number,  when  one  of  the  com- 
pany besought  his  comrades  to  desist.  '  You  '11 
kill  the  d — d  old  scoundrel^  You  've  already  whipt 
a  dollar's  worth  out  of  him,  even  if  he  stole  it ! ' 
1  O  yes,'  said  another,  ( let  him  down.  He  '11  never 
tell  us  another  lie,  I  '11  warrant  ye ! '  With  this, 
one  of  the  company  untied  the  old  man,  and  bid 
him  go  about  his  business. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          201 

The  old  man  left,  but  the  company  remained  as 
much  as  an  hour,  scouring  the  woods.  Round  and 
round  they  went,  turning  up  the  underbrush,  and 
peering  about  like  so  many  bloodhounds.  Two 
or  three  times  they  came  within  six  feet  of  where 
I  lay.  I  tell  you  I  held  my  stick  with  a  firmer 
grasp  than  I  did  in  coming  up  to  your  house  to- 
night. I  expected  to  level  one  of  them  at  least. 
Fortunately,  however,  I  eluded  their  pursuit,  and 
they  left  me  alone  in  the  woods. 

"  My  last  dollar  was  now  gone,  and  you  may 
well  suppose  I  felt  the  loss  of  it ;  but  the  thought 
of  being  once  again  free  to  pursue  my  journey, 
prevented  that  depression  which  a  sense  of  desti- 
tution causes ;  so  swinging  my  little  bundle  on  my 
back,  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  Great  Bear  (which 
ever  points  the  way  to  my  beloved  star,)  and  I 
started  again  on  my  journey.  What  I  lost  in  money 
I  made  up  at  a  hen-roost  that  same  night,  upon 
which  I  fortunately  came." 

"  But  you  did  'nt  eat  you  food  raw  ?  How  did 
you  cook  it  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Listwell. 

"  O  no,  Madam,"  said  Madison,  turning  to  his 
little  bundle;  —  "I  had  the  means  of  cooking." 
Here  he  took  out  of  his  bundle  an  old-fashioned 
tinder-box,  and  taking  up  a  piece  of  a  file,  which 
he  brought  with  him,  he  struck  it  with  a  heavy 
flint,  and  brought  out  at  least  a  dozen  sparks  at 
once.  "  I  have  had  this  old  box,"  said  he,  "  more 
than  five  years.  It  is  the  only  property  saved  from 
the  fire  in  the  dismal  swamp.  It  has  done  me 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

good  service.  It  has  given  me  the  means  of 
broiling  many  a  chicken !  " 

It  seemed  quite  a  relief  to  Mrs.  Listwell  to  know 
that  Madison  had,  at  least,  lived  upon  cooked  food. 
Women  have  a  perfect  horror  of  eating  uncooked 
food. 

By  this  time  thoughts  of  what  was  best  to  be 
done  about  getting  Madison  to  Canada,  began  to 
trouble  Mr.  Listwell ;  for  the  laws  of  Ohio  were 
yery  stringent  against  any  one  who  should  aid,  or 
who  were  found  aiding  a  slave  to  escape  through 
that  State.  A  citizen,  for  the  simple  act  of  taking 
a  fugitive  slave  in  his  carriage,  had  just  been  strip- 
ped of  all  his  property,  and  thrown  penniless  upon 
the  world.  Notwithstanding  this,  Mr.  Listwell 
was  determined  to  see  Madison  safely  on  his  way 
to  Canada.  "  Give  yourself  no  uneasiness,  said 
he  to  Madison,  for  if  it  cost  my  farm,  I  shall  see 
you  safely  out  of  the  States,  and  on  your  way  to  a 
land  of  liberty.  Thank  God  that  there  is  such  a 
land  so  near  us!  You  will  spend  to-morrow  with 
us,  and  to-morrow  night  I  will  take  you  in  my 
carriage  to  the  Lake.  Once  upon  that,  and  you 
are  safe." 

"  Thank  you  !  thank  you,"  said  the  fugitive ;  "  I 
will  commit  myself  to  your  care." 

For  the  first  time  during  five  years,  Madison 
enjoyed  the  luxury  of  resting  his  limbs  on  a  com- 
fortable bed,  and  inside  a  human  habitation. 
Looking  at  the  white  sheets,  he  said  to  Mr.  List- 
well,  "What,  sir!  you  don't  mean  that  I  shall 
sleep  in  that  bed  ?  " 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         203 

"  Oh  yes,  oh  yes." 

After  Mr.  Listwell  left  the  room,  Madison  said 
he  really  hesitated  whether  or  not  he  should  lie 
on  the  floor ;  for  that  was  far  more  comfortable  and 
inviting  than  any  bed  to  which  he  had  been  used. 

We  pass  over  the  thoughts  and  feelings,  the 
hopes  and  fears,  the  plans  and  purposes,  that 
revolved  in  the  mind  of  Madison  during  the  day 
that  he  was  secreted  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Listwell. 
The  reader  will  be  content  to  know  that  nothing 
occurred  to  endanger  his  liberty,  or  to  excite  alarm. 
Many  were  the  little  attentions  bestowed  upon 
him  in  his  quiet  retreat  and  hiding-place.  In  the 
evening,  Mr.  Listwell,  after  treating  Madison  to  a 
new  suit  of  winter  clothes,  and  replenishing  his 
exhausted  purse  with  five  dollars,  all  in  silver, 
brought  out  his  two-horse  wagon,  well  provided 
with  buffaloes,  and  silently  started  off  with  him  to 
Cleveland.  They  arrived  there  without  interrup- 
tion, a  few  minutes  before  sunrise  the  next  morn- 
ing. Fortunately  the  steamer  Admiral  lay  at  the 
wharf,  and  was  to  start  for  Canada  at  nine  o'clock. 
Here  the  last  anticipated  danger  was  surmounted. 
It  was  feared  that  just  at  this  point  the  hunters  of 
men  might  be  on  the  look-out,  and,  possibly, 
pounce  upon  their  victim.  Mr.  Listwell  saw  the 
captain  of  the  boat ;  cautiously  sounded  him  on 
the  matter  of  carrying  liberty-loving  passengers, 
before  he  introduced  his  precious  charge.  This 
done,  Madison  was  conducted  on  board.  With 


204          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

usual  generosity  this  true  subject  of  the  emancipa- 
ting queen  welcomed  Madison,  and  assured  him 
that  he  should  be  safely  landed  in  Canada,  free  of 
charge.  Madison  now  felt  himself  no  more  a 
piece  of  merchandise,  but  a  passenger,  and,  like  any 
other  passenger,  going  about  his  business,  carry- 
ing with  him  what  belonged  to  him,  and  nothing 
which  rightfully  belonged  to  anybody  else. 

Wrapped  in  his  new  winter  suit,  snug  and 
comfortable,  a  pocket  full  of  silver,  safe  from  his 
pursuers,  embarked  for  a  free  country,  Madison 
gave  every  sign  of  sincere  gratitude,  and  bade  his 
kind  benefactor  farewell,  with  such  a  grip  of  the 
hand  as  bespoke  a  heart  full  of  honest  manliness, 
and  a  soul  that  knew  how  to  appreciate  kindness. 
It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  Mr.  Listwell  was 
deeply  moved  by  the  gratitude  and  friendship  he 
had  excited  in  a  nature  so  noble  as  that  of  the 
fugitive.  He  went  to  his  home  that  day  with  a 
joy  and  gratification  which  knew  no  bounds.  He 
had  done  something  "  to  deliver  the  spoiled  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  spoiler,"  he  had  given  bread  to 
the  hungry,  and  clothes  to  the  naked;  he  had 
befriended  a  man  to  whom  the  laws  of  his  country 
forbade  all  friendship, — and  in  proportion  to  the 
odds  against  his  righteous  deed,  was  the  delightful 
satisfaction  that  gladdened  his  heart.  On  reaching 
home,  he  exclaimed,  "  He  is  safe,  —  he  is  safe,  — 
he  is  safe"  —  and  the  cup  of  his  joy  was  shared 
by  his  excellent  lady.  The  following  letter  was 
received  from  Madison  a  few  days  after. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.  205 

"WINDSOR,  CANADA  WEST,  DEC.  16,  1840. 
My  dear  Friend, — for  such  you  truly  are  :  — 

Madison  is  out  of  the  woods  at  last ;  I  nestle  in  the 
mane  of  the  British  lion,  protected  by  his  mighty  paw 
from  the  talons  and  the  beak  of  the  American  eagle. 
I  AM  FREE,  and  breathe  an  atmosphere  too  pure  for 
slaves,  slave-hunters,  or  slave-holders.  My  heart  is  full. 
As  many  thanks  to  you,  sir,  and  to  your  kind  lady,  as 
there  are  pebbles  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie ;  and  may 
the  blessing  of  God  rest  upon  you  both.  You  will  never 
be  forgotten  by  your  profoundly  grateful  friend, 

MADISON  WASHINGTON." 


PART  III. 

His  head  was  with  his  heart, 

And  that  was  far  away  ! 

Childe  Harold. 


Just  upon  the  edge  of  the  great  road  from 
Petersburg,  Virginia,  to  Richmond,  and  only  about 
fifteen  miles  from  the  latter  place,  there  stands  a 
somewhat  ancient  and  famous  public  tavern,  quite 
notorious  in  its  better  days,  as  being  the  grand 
resort  for  most  of  the  leading  gamblers,  horse-racers, 
cock-fighters,  and  slave-traders  from  all  the  country 
round  about.  This  old  rookery,  the  nucleus  of  all 
sorts  of  birds,  mostly  those  of  ill  omen,  has,  like- 

18 


206         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

everything  else  peculiar  to  Virginia,  lost  much  ol 
its  ancient  consequence  and  splendor ;  yet  it  keeps 
up  some  appearance  of  gaiety  and  high  life,  and 
is  still  frequented,  even  by  respectable  travellers, 
who  are  unacquainted  with  its  past  history  and 
present  condition.  Its  fine  old  portico  looks  well 
at  a  distance,  and  gives  the  building  an  air  of 
grandeur.  A  nearer  view,  however,  does  little  to 
sustain  this  pretension.  The  house  is  large,  and 
its  style  imposing,  but  time  and  dissipation,,  un- 
failing in  their  results,  have  made  ineffaceable 
marks  upon  it,  and  it  must,  in  the  common  course 
of  events,  soon  be  numbered  with  the  things  that 
were.  The  gloomy  mantle  of  ruin  is,  already,  out- 
spread to  envelop  it,  and  its  remains,  even  but 
now  remind  one  of  a  human  skull,  after  the  flesh 
has  mingled  with  the  earth.  Old  hats  and  rags 
fill  the  places  in  the  upper  windows  once  occupied 
by  large  panes  of  glass,  and  the  moulding  boards 
along  the  roofing  have  dropped  off  from  their  places, 
leaving  holes  and  crevices  in  the  rented  wall  for 
bats  and  swallows  to  build  their  nests  in.  The 
platform  of  the  portico,  which  fronts  the  highway 
is  a  rickety  affair,  its  planks  are  loose,  and  in 
some  places  entirely  gone,  leaving  effective  man- 
traps in  their  stead  for  nocturnal  ramblers.  The 
wooden  pillars,  which  once  supported  it,  but  which 
now  hang  as  encumbrances,  are  all  rotten,  and 
tremble  with  the  touch.  A  part  of  the  stable,  a 
fine  old  structure  in  its  day,  which  has  given  com- 
fortable shelter  to  hundreds  of  the  noblest  steeds  of 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM,          207 

"  the  Old  Dominion "  at  once,  was  blown  down 
many  years  ago,  and  never  has  been,  and  probably 
never  will  be,  rebuilt.  The  doors  of  the  barn  are 
in  wretched  condition ;  they  will  shut  with  a  little 
human  strength  to  help  their  worn  out  hinges,  but 
not  otherwise.  The  side  of  the  great  building 
seen  from  the  road  is  much  discolored  in  sundry 
places  by  slops  poured  from  the  upper  windows, 
rendering  it  unsightly  and  offensive  in  other 
respects.  Three  or  four  great  dogs,  looking  as 
dull  and  gloomy  as  the  mansion  itself,  lie  stretched 
out  along  the  door-sills  under  the  portico  ;  and 
double  the  number  of  loafers,  some  of  them  com- 
pletely rum-ripe,  and  others  ripening,  dispose  them- 
selves like  so  many  sentinels  about  the  front  of 
the  house.  These  latter  understand  the  science  of 
scraping  acquaintance  to  perfection.  They  know 
every-body,  and  almost  every-body  knows  them. 
Of  course,  as  their  title  implies,  they  have  no  regu- 
lar employment.  They  are  (to  use  an  expressive 
phrase)  hangers  on,  or  still  better,  they  are  what 
sailors  would  denominate  holders-on  to  the  slack, 
in  every-body }s  mess,  and  in  nobody's  watch.  They 
are,  however,  as  good  as  the  newspaper  for  the 
events  of  the  day,  and  they  sell  their  knowledge 
almost  as  cheap.  Money  they  seldom  have ;  yet 
they  always  have  capital  the  most  reliable.  They 
make  their  way  with  a  succeeding  traveller  by 
intelligence  gained  from  a  preceding  one.  All  the 
great  names  of  Virginia  they  know  by  heart,  and 
have  seen  their  owners  often.  The  history  of  the 


1208  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

house  is  folded  in  their  lips,  and  they  rattle  off 
stories  in  connection  with  it,  equal  to  the  guides 
at  Dryburgh  Abbey.  He  must  be  a  shrewd  man, 
and  well  skilled  in  the  art  of  evasion,  who  gets  out 
of  the  hands  of  these  fellows  without  being  at  the 
-expense  of  a  treat. 

It  was  at  this  old  tavern,  while  on  a  second  visit 
to  the  State  of  Virginia  in  1841,  that  Mr.  Listwell, 
unacquainted  with  the  fame  of  the  place,  turned 
aside,  about  sunset,  to  pass  the  night.  Riding  up 
to  the  house,  he  had  scarcely  dismounted,  when 
one  of  the  half  dozen  bar-room  fraternity  met  and 
addressed  him  in  a  manner  exceedingly  bland  and 
accommodating. 

"Fine  evening,  sir." 

"  Very  fine,"  said  Mr.  Listwell.  "  This  is  a  tav- 
ern, I  believe  ?  " 

"  O  yes,  sir,  yes ;  although  you  may  think  it 
looks  a  little  the  worse  for  wear,  it  was  once  as 
good  a  house  as  any  in  Virginy.  I  make  no  doubt 
if  ye  spend  the  night  here,  you  '11  think  it  a  good 
house  yet;  for  there  aint  a  more  accommodating 
man  in  the  country  than  you  '11  find  the  landlord." 

Listwell.  "  The  most  I  want  is  a  good  bed  for 
myself,  and  a  full  manger  for  my  horse.  If  I  get 
these,  I  shall  be  quite  satisfied." 

Loafer.  "  Well,  I  alloys  like  to  hear  a  gentle- 
man talk  for  his  horse ;  and  just  becase  the  horse 
can't  talk  for  itself.  A  man  that  don't  care  about 
!his  beast,  and  don't  look  arter  it  when  he  's  trav- 
elling, aint  much  in  my  eye  anyhow.  Now,  sir, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM,          209 

I  likes  a  horse,  and  I  '11  guarantee  your  horse  will 
be  taken  good  care  on  here.  That  old  stable,  for 
all  you  see  it  looks  so  shabby  now,  once  sheltered 
the  great  Eclipse^  when  he  run  here  agin  Batchelor 
and  Jumping  Jemmy.  Them  was  fast  horses,  but 
he  beat  'em  both." 

Listwell.     "  Indeed." 

Loafer.  "  "\fifell,  I  rather  reckon  you'  ve  travel- 
led a  right  smart  distance  to-day,  from  the  look  of 
your  horse  ?  " 

Listwell.     "  Forty  miles  only." 

Loafer.  "  Well !  I  '11  be  darned  if  that  aint  a 
pretty  good  only.  Mister,  that  beast  of  yours  is  a 
singed  cat,  I  warrant  you.  I  never  see'd  a  creature 
like  that  that  was'nt  good  on  the  road.  You  've 
come  about  forty  miles,  then  ?  " 

Listwell.  "  Yes,  yes,  and  a  pretty  good  pace  at 
that." 

Loafer.  "  You  're  somewhat  in  a  hurry,  then,  I 
make  no  doubt?  I  reckon  I  could  guess  if  I 
would,  what  you  're  going  to  Richmond  for  ?  It 
would'nt  be  much  of  a  guess  either ;  for  it 's  ru- 
mored hereabouts,  that  there 's  to  be  the  greatest 
sale  of  niggers  at  Richmond  to-morrow  that  has 
taken  place  there  in  a  long  time;  and  I'll  be 
bound  you  're  a  going  there  to  have  a  hand  in  it." 

Listwell.  "  Why,  you  must  think,  then,  that 
there 's  money  to  be  made  at  that  business  ?  " 

Loafer.  "  Well,  'pon  my  honor,  sir,  I  never 
made  any  that  way  myself;  but  it  stands  to  rea- 
son that  it 's  a  money  making  business ;  for  almost 
18* 


210          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

all  other  business  in  Virginia  is  dropped  to  engage 
hi  this.  One  thing  is  sartain,  I  never  see'd  a  nig- 
ger-buyer yet  that  had  'nt  a  plenty  of  money,  and 
he  was  'nt  as  free  with  it  as  water.  I  has  known 
one  on  'em  to  treat  as  high  as  twenty  times  in  a 
night ;  and,  ginerally  speaking,  they 's  men  of  edi- 
cation,  and  knows  all  about  the  government.  The 
fact  is,  sir,  I  alloys  like  to  hear  'em  talk,  bekase  I 
alloys  can  learn  something  from  them." 

Listwell.     "  What  may  I  call  your  name,  sir  ?  " 

Loafer.  "  Well,  now,  they  calls  me  Wilkes. 
I'm  known  all  around  by  the  gentlemen  that 
< comes  here.  They  all  knows  old  Wilkes." 

Listwell.  "  Well,  Wilkes,  you  seem  to  be  ac- 
quainted here,  and  I  see  you  have  a  strong  liking 
for  a  horse.  Be  so  good  as  to  speak  a  kind  word 
for  mine  to  the  hostler  to-night,  and  you  '11  not 
lose  anything  by  it." 

Loafer.  "  Well,  sir,  I  see  you  don't  say  much, 
but  you  've  got  an  insight  into  things.  It 's  alloys 
wise  to  get  the  good  will  of  them  that 's  acquainted 
about  a  tavern ;  for  a'  man  don't  know  when  he 
goes  into  a  house  what  may  happen,  or  how  much 
he  may  need  a  friend.  Here  the  loafer  gave  Mr. 
Listwell  a  significant  grin,  which  expressed  a  sort 
of  triumphant  pleasure  at  having,  as  he  supposed, 
by  his  tact  succeeded  in  placing  so  fine  appearing 
a  gentleman  under  obligations  to  him. 

The  pleasure,  however,  was  mutual;  for  there 
was  something  so  insinuating  in  the  glance  of  this 
loquacious  customer,  that  Mr.  Listwell  was  very 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         211 

glad  to  get  quit  of  him,  and  to  do  so  more  success- 
fully, he  ordered  his  supper  to  be  brought  to  him 
in  his  private  room,  private  to  the  eye,  but  not  to 
the  ear.  This  room  was  directly  over  the  bar,  and 
the  plastering  being  off,  nothing  but  pine  boards 
and  naked  laths  separated  him  from  the  disagreea- 
ble company  below, — he  could  easily  hear  what 
was  said  in  the  bar-room,  and  was  rather  glad  of 
the  advantage  it  afforded,  for,  as  you  shall  see,  it 
furnished  him  important  hints  as  to  the  manner 
and  deportment  he  should  assume  during  his  stay 
at  that  tavern. 

Mr.  Listwell  says  he  had  got  into  his  room  but 
a  few  moments,  when  he  heard  the  officious  Wilkes 
below,  in  a  tone  of  disappointment,  exclaim, 
"  Whar  's  that  gentleman  ?"  Wilkes  was  evidently 
expecting  to  meet  with  his  friend  at  the  bar-room, 
on  his  return,  and  had  no  doubt  of  his  doing  the 
handsome  thing.  "  He  has  gone  to  his  room," 
answered  the  landlord,  "  and  has  ordered  his  sup- 
per to  be  brought  to  him." 

Here  some  one  shouted  out,  "  Who  is  he, 
Wilkes?  Where 'she  going?" 

"  Well,  now,  I  '11  be  hanged  if  I  know ;  but  I  'm 
willing  to  make  any  man  a  bet  of  this  old  hat 
agin  a  five  dollar  bill,  that  that  gent  is  as  full  of 
money  as  a  dog  is  of  fleas.  He 's  going  down  to 
Richmond  to  buy  niggers,  I  make  no  doubt. 
He 's  no  fool,  I  warrant  ye." 

"  Well,  he  acts  d d  strange,"  said  another, 

"  anyhow.  I  likes  to  see  a  man,  when  he  comes 


212         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

up  to  a  tavern,  to  come  straight  into  the  bar-room, 
and  show  that  he 's  a  man  among  men.  Nobody 
was  going  to  bite  him." 

"  Now,  I  don't  blame  him  a  bit  for  not  coming 
in  here.  That  man  knows  his  business,  and  means 
to  take  care  on  his  money,"  answered  Wilkes. 

"  Wilkes,  you  're  a  fool.  You  only  say  that, 
becase  you  hope  to  get  a  few  coppers  out  on  him." 

"  You  only  measure  rny  corn  by  your  half- 
bushel,  I  won't  say  that  you  're  only  mad  becase  I 
got  the  chance  of  speaking  to  him  first." 

"  O  Wilkes  i  you  're  known  here.  You  '11  praise 
up  any  body  that  will  give  you  a  copper ;  besides, 
't  is  my  opinion  that  that  fellow  who  took  his  long 
slab-sides  up  stairs,  for  all  the  world  just  like  a 
half-scared  woman,  afraid  to  look  honest  men  in 
the  face,  is  a  Northerner,  and  as  mean  as  dish- 
water." 

"  Now  what  will  you  bet  of  that,"  said  Wilkes. 

The  speaker  said,  "  I  make  no  bets  with  you, 
'kase  you  can  get  that  fellow  up  stairs  there  to 
say  anything." 

"  Well,"  said  Wilkes,  "  I  am  willing  to  bet  any 
man  in  the  company  that  that  gentleman  is  a  nig- 
g-er-buyer.  He  did  'nt  tell  me  so  right  down,  but 
I  reckon  I  knows  enough  about  men  to  give  a 
pretty  clean  guess  as  to  what  they  are  arter." 

The  dispute  as  to  who  Mr.  Listwell  was,  what 
his  business,  where  he  was  going,  etc.,  was  kept 
up  with  much  animation  for  some  time,  and  more 
than  once  threatened  a  serious  disturbance  of  the 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


213 


peace.  Wilkes  had  his  friends  as  well  as  his 
opponents.  After  this  sharp  debate,  the  company 
amused  themselves  by  drinking  whiskey,  and  tell- 
ing stories.  The  latter  consisting  of  quarrels, 
fights,  rencontres,  and  duels,  in  which  distinguished 
persons  of  that  neighborhood,  and  frequenters  of 
that  house,  had  been  actors.  Some  of  these  stories 
were  frightful  enough,  and  were  told,  too,  with  a 
relish  which  bespoke  the  pleasure  of  the  parties 
with  the  horrid  scenes  they  portrayed.  It  would 
not  be  proper  here  to  give  the  reader  any  idea  of 
the  vulgarity  and  dark  profanity  which  rolled,  as 
"  a  sweet  morsel,"  under  these  corrupt  tongues. 
A  more  brutal  set  of  creatures,  perhaps,  never  con- 
gregated. 

Disgusted,  and  a  little  alarmed  withal,  Mr.  List- 
well,  who  was  not  accustomed  to  such  entertain- 
ment, at  length  retired,  but  not  to  sleep.  He  was 
too  much  wrought  upon  by  what  he  had  heard  to 
rest  quietly,  and  what  snatches  of  sleep  he  got, 
were  interrupted  by  dreams  which  were  anything 
than  pleasant.  At  eleven  o'clock,  there  seemed  to 
be  several  hundreds  of  persons  crowding  into  the 
house.  A  loud  and  confused  clamour,  cursing  and 
cracking  of  whips,  and  the  noise  of  chains  startled 
him  from  his  bed ;  for  a  moment  he  would  have 
given  the  half  of  his  farm  in  Ohio  to  have  been  at 
home.  This  uproar  was  kept  up  with  undulating 
course,  till  near  morning.  There  was  loud  laugh- 
ing,—  loud  singing,  —  loud  cursing,  —  and  yet 
there  seemed  to  be  weeping  and  mourning  in  the 


214         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

midst  of  all.  Mr.  Listwell  said  he  had  heard 
enough  during  the  forepart  of  the  night  to  con- 
vince him  that  a  buyer  of  men  and  women  stood 
the  best  chance  of  being  respected.  And  he,  there- 
fore, thought  it  best  to  say  nothing  which  might 
undo  the  favorable  opinion  that  had  been  formed 
of  him  in  the  bar-room  by  at  least  one  of  the  fra- 
ternity that  swarmed  about  it.  While  he  would 
not  avow  himself  a  purchaser  of  slaves,  he  deemed 
it  not  prudent  to  disavow  it.  He  felt  that  he 
might,  properly,  refuse  to  cast  such  a  pearl  before 
parties  which,  to  him,  were  worse  than  swine.  To 
reveal  himself,  and  to  impart  a  knowledge  of  his 
real  character  and  sentiments  would,  to  say  the 
least,  be  imparting  intelligence  with  the  certainty 
of  seeing  it  and  himself  both  abused.  Mr.  List- 
well  confesses,  that  this  reasoning  did  not  altogether 
satisfy  his  conscience,  for,  hating  slavery  as  he  did, 
and  regarding  it  to  be  the  immediate  duty  of  every 
man  to  cry  out  against  it,  "  without  compromise 
and  without  concealment,"  it  was  hard  for  him  to 
admit  to  himself  the  possibility  of  circumstances 
wherein  a  man  might,  properly,  hold  his  tongue  on 
the  subject.  Having  as  little  of  the  spirit  of  a  mar- 
tyr as  Erasmus,  he  concluded,  like  the  latter,  that 
it  was  wiser  to  trust  the  mercy  of  God  for  his  soul, 
than  the  humanity  of  slave-traders  for  his  body. 
Bodily  fear,  not  conscientious  scruples,  prevailed. 
In  this  spirit  he  rose  early  in  the  morning,  mani- 
festing no  surprise  at  what  he  had  heard  during  the 
night.  His  quondam  friend  was  soon  at  his  elbow, 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


215 


boring  him  with  all  sorts  of  questions.  All,  however, 
directed  to  find  out  his  character,  business,  resi- 
dence, purposes,  and  destination.  With  the  most 
perfect  appearance  of  good  nature  and  carelessness, 
Mr.  Listwell  evaded  these  meddlesome  inquiries, 
and  turned  conversation  to  general  topics,  leaving 
himself  and  all  that  specially  pertained  to  him,  out 
of  discussion.  Disengaging  himself  from  their  trou- 
blesome companionship,  he  made  his  way  towards 
an  old  bowling-alley,  which  was  connected  with 
the  house,  and  which,  like  all  the  rest,  was  in  very 
bad  repair. 

On  reaching  the  alley  Mr.  Listwell  saw,  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  a  slave-gang  on  their  way  to 
market.  A  sad  sight  truly.  Here  were  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  human  beings,  —  children  of  a 
common  Creator  —  guilty  of  no  crime  —  men  and 
women,  with  hearts,  minds,  and  deathless  spirits, 
chained  and  fettered,  and  bound  for  the  market,  in 
a  Christian  country,  —  in  a  country  boasting  of 
its  liberty,  independence,  and  high  civilization! 
Humanity  converted  into  merchandise,  and  linked 
in  iron  bands,  with  no  regard  to  decency  or  human- 
ity! All  sizes,  ages,  and  sexes,  mothers,  fathers, 
daughters,  brothers,  sisters,  —  all  huddled  together, 
on  their  way  to  market  to  be  sold  and  separated 
from  home,  and  from  each  other  forever.  And 
all  to  fill  the  pockets  of  men  too  lazy  to  work  for 
an  honest  living,  and  who  gain  their  fortune  by 
plundering  the  helpless,  and  trafficking  in  the  souls 
and  sinews  of  men.  As  he  gazed  upon  this  revolt- 


216          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

ing  and  heart-rending  scene,  our  informant  said  he 
almost  doubted  the  existence  of  a  God  of  justice ! 
And  he  stood  wondering  that  the  earth  did  not 
open  and  swallow  up  such  wickedness. 

In  the  midst  of  these  reflections,  and  while  run- 
ning his  eye  up  and  down  the  fettered  ranks,  he 
met  the  glance  of  one  whose  face  he  thought  he 
had  seen  before.  To  be  resolved,  he  moved  towards 
the  spot.  It  was  MADISON  WASHINGTON!  Here 
was  a  scene  for  the  pencil!  Had  Mr.  Listwell 
been  confronted  by  one  risen  from  the  dead,  he 
could  not  have  been  more  appalled.  He  was  com- 
pletely stunned.  A  thunderbolt  could  not  have 
struck  him  more  dumb.  He  stood,  for  a  few 
moments,  as  motionless  as  one  petrified  ;  collecting 
himself,  -he  at  length  exclaimed,  "  Madison !  is 
that  you  ?  " 

The  noble  fugitive,  but  little  less  astonished  than 
himself,  answered  cheerily,  "  O  yes,  sir,  they  've 
got  me  again." 

Thoughtless  of  consequences  for  the  moment, 
Mr.  Listwell  ran  up  to  his  old  friend,  placing  his 
hands  upon  his  shoulders,  and  looked  him  in  the 
face !  Speechless  they  stood  gazing  at  each  other 
as  if  to  be  doubly  resolved  that  there  was  no  mis- 
take about  the  matter,  till  Madison  motioned  his 
friend  away,  intimating  a  fear  lest  the  keepers 
should  find  him  there,  and  suspect  him  of  tamper- 
ing with  the  slaves. 

"  They  will  soon  be  out  to  look  after  us.  You 
can  come  when  they  go  to  breakfast,  and  I  will 
tell  you  all," 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.          217 

Pleased  with  this  arrangement,  Mr.  Listwell 
passed  out  of  the  alley ;  but  only  just  in  time  to- 
save  himself,  for,  while  near  the  door,  he  observed 
three  men  making  their  way  to  the  alley.  The 
thought  occurred  to  him  to  await  their  arrival,  as 
the  best  means  of  diverting  the  ever  ready  suspi- 
cions of  the  guilty. 

While  the  scene  between  Mr.  Listwell  and  his 
friend  Madison  was  going  on,  the  other  slaves 
stood  as  mute  spectators,  —  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  all  this  could  mean.  As  he  left,  he  heard 
the  man  chained  to  Madison  ask,  "  Who  is  that 
gentleman  ?  " 

"  He  is  a  friend  of  mine.  I  cannot  tell  you  now. 
Suffice  it  to  say  he  is  a  friend.  You  shall  hear  more 
of  him  before  long,  but  mark  me  !  whatever  shall 
pass  between  that  gentleman  and  me,  in  your 
hearing,  I  pray  you  will  say  nothing  about  it. 
We  are  all  chained  here  together,  —  ours  is  a 
common  lot;  and  that  gentleman  is  not  less  your 
friend  than  mine"  At  these  words,  an  mysteri- 
ous as  they  were,  the  unhappy  company  gave 
signs  of  satisfaction  and  hope.  It  seems  that 
Madison,  by  that  mesmeric  power  which  is  the  in- 
variable accompaniment  of  genius,  had  already 
won  the  confidence  of  the  gang,  and  was  a  sort  of 
general-in-chief  among  them. 

By   this   time   the   keepers    arrived.     A   horrid 
trio,  well  fitted  for  their  demoniacal  work.     Their 
uncombed  hair  came  down  over  foreheads  "  villain- 
ously low"  and  with  eyes,  mouths,  and  noses  to> 
19 


218         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

match.  "  Hallo !  hallo ! "  they  growled  out  as 
they  entered.  "  Are  you  all  there !  " 

"  All  here,"  said  Madison. 

"  Well,  well,  that's  right!  your  journey  will 
soon  be  over.  You  '11  be  in  Richmond  by  eleven 
to-day,  and  then  you  '11  have  an  easy  time  on  it." 

"  I  say,  gal,  what  in  the  devil  are  you  crying 
about  ?  "  said  one  of  them.  4  '11  give  you  some- 
thing to  cry  about,  if  you  don't  mind."  This  was 
said  to  a  girl,  apparently  not  more  than  twelve 
years  old,  who  had  been  weeping  bitterly.  She 
had,  probably,  left  behind  her  a  loving  mother, 
affectionate  sisters,  brothers,  and  friends,  and  her 
tears  were  but  the  natural  expression  of  her  sor- 
row, and  the  only  solace.  But  the  dealers  in  hu- 
man flesh  have  no  respect  for  such  sorrow.  They 
look  upon  it  as  a  protest  against  their  cruel  injus- 
tice, and  they  are  prompt  to  punish  it. 

This  is  a  puzzle  not  easily  solved.  How  came 
he  here  ?  what  can  I  do  for  him  ?  may  I  not  even 
now  be  in*  some  way  compromised  in  this  affair  ? 
were  thoughts  that  troubled  Mr.  Listwell,  and 
made  him  eager  for  the  promised  opportunity  of 
speaking  to  Madison. 

The  bell  now  sounded  for  breakfast,  and  keep- 
ers and  drivers,  with  pistols  and  bowie-knives 
gleaming  from  their  belts,  hurried  in,  as  if  to  get 
the  best  places.  Taking  the  chance  now  afforded, 
Mr.  Listwell  hastened  back  to  the  bowling-alley. 
Reaching  Madison,  he  said,  "  Now  do  tell  me  all 
about  the  matter.  Do  you  know  me  ?  " 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOJVI.  219 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Madison,  "  I  know  you  well, 
and  shall  never  forget  you  nor  that  cold  and 
dreary  night  you  gave  me  shelter.  I  must  be 
short,"  he  continued,  "  for  they  '11  soon  be  out 
again.  This,  then,  is  the  story  in  brief.  On 
reaching  Canada,  and  getting  over  the  excitement 
of  making  my  escape,  sir,  my  thoughts  turned  to 
my  poor  wife,  who  had  well  deserved  my  love  by 
her  virtuous  fidelity  and  undying  affection  for  me. 
I  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  leaving  her  in  the 
cruel  jaws  of  slavery,  without  making  an  effort 
to  rescue  her.  First,  I  tried  to  get  money  to  buy 
her;  but  oh!  the  process  was  too  slow.  I  des- 
paired of  accomplishing  it.  She  was  in  all  my 
thoughts  by  day,  and  my  dreams  by  night.  At 
times  I  could  almost  hear  her  voice,  saying,  <  O 
Madison !  Madison !  will  you  then  leave  me  here  ? 
can  you  leave  me  here  to  die  ?  No !  no !  you  will 
come !  you  will  come ! '  I  was  wretched.  I  lost 
my  appetite.  I  could  neither  work,  eat,  nor  sleep^ 
till  I  resolved  to  hazard  my  own  liberty,  to  gain 
that  of  my  wife !  But  I  must  be  short.  Six 
weeks  ago  I  reached  my  old  master's  place.  I 
laid  about  the  neighborhood  nearly  a  week,  watch- 
ing my  chance,  and,  finally,  I  ventured  upon  the 
desperate  attempt  to  reach  my  poor  wife's  room  by 
means  of  a  ladder.  I  reached  the  window,  but 
the  noise  in  raising  it  frightened  my  wife,  and  she 
screamed  and  fainted.  I  took  her  in  my  arms, 
and  was  descending  the  ladder,  when  the  dogs  be- 
gan to  bark  furiously,  and  before  I  could  get  to 


220          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

•the  woods  the  white  folks  were  roused.  The  cool 
Anight  air  soon  restored  rny  wife,  and  she  readily 
recognized  me.  We  made  the  best  of  our  way  to 
.the  woods,  but  it  was  now  too  late,  —  the  dogs  were 
:  after  us  as  though  they  would  have  torn  us  to 
pieces.  It  was  all  over  with  me  now!  My  old 
^master  and  his  two  sons  ran  out  with  loaded 
rifles,  and  before  we  were  out  of  gunshot,  our 
ears  were  assailed  with  '  Stop!  stop!  or  be  shot 
down?  Nevertheless  we  ran  on.  Seeing  that 
we  gave  no  heed  to  their  calls,  they  fired,  and  my 
poor  wife  fell  by  my  side  dead,  while  I  received 
but  a  slight  flesh  wound.  I  now  became  desper- 
ate, and  stood  my  ground,  and  awaited  their 
;  attack  over  her  dead  body.  They  rushed  upon  me, 
with  their  rifles  in  hand.  I  parried  their  blows, 
and  fought  them  'till  I  was  knocked  down  and 
*  overpowered." 

"  Oh !  it  was  madness  to  have  returned,"  said 
Mr.  Listwell. 

"  Sir,  I  could  not  be  free  with  the  galling 
thought  that  my  poor  wife  was  still  a  slave.  With 
Jher  in  slavery,  my  body,  not  my  spirit,  was  free. 
I  was  taken  to  the  house,  —  chained  to  a  ring-bolt, 
—  my  wounds  dressed.  I  was  kept  there  three 
^days.  All  the  slaves,  for  miles  around,  were  brought 
:to  see  me.  Many  slave-holders  came  with  their 
slaves,  using  me  as  proof  of  the  completeness  of 
-their  power,  and  of  the  impossibility  of  slaves  get- 
ting away.  I  was  taunted,  jeered  at,  and  berated 
(fey  them,  in  a  manner  that  pierced  me  to  the  soul. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         221 

Thank  God,  I  was  able  to  smother  my  rage,  and 
to  bear  it  all  with  seeming  composure.  After  my 
wounds  were  nearly  healed,  I  was  taken  to  a  tree 
and  stripped,  and  I  received  sixty  lashes  on  my 
naked  back.  A  few  days  after,  I  was  sold  to  a 
slave-trader,  and  placed  in  this  gang  for  the  New 
Orleans  market." 

"  Do  you  think  your  master  would  sell  you  to 
me?" 

"  O  no,  sir !  I  was  sold  OB  condition  of  my  be- 
ing taken  South.  Their  motive  is  revenge." 

"  Then,  then,"  said  Mr.  Listwell,  "  I  fear  I  can 
do  nothing  for  you.  Put  your  trust  in  God,  and 
bear  your  sad  lot  with  the  manly  fortitude  which 
becomes  a  man.  I  shall  see  you  at  Richmond, 
but  don't  recognize  me."  Saying  this,  Mr.  List- 
well  handed  Madison  ten  dollars ;  said  a  few 
words  to  the  other  slaves ;  received  their  hearty 
"  God  bless  you,"  and  made  his  way  to  the  house. 

Fearful  of  exciting  suspicion  by  too  long  delay, 
our  friend  went  to  the  breakfast  table,  with  the 
air  of  one  who  half  reproved  the  greediness  of 
those  who  rushed  in  at  the  sound  of  the  bell.  A 
cup  of  coffee  was  all  that  he  could  manage.  His 
feelings  were  too  bitter  and  excited,  and  his  heart 
was  too  full  with  the  fate  of  poor  Madison  (whom 
he  loved  as  well  as  admired)  to  relish  his  breakfast ; 
and  although  he  sat  long  after  the  company  had 
left  the  table,  he  really  did  little  more  than  change 
the  position  of  his  knife  and  fork.  The  strange- 
ness of  meeting  again  one  whom  he  had  met  on 
19* 


222        AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

two  several  occasions  before,  under  extraordinary 
circumstances,  was  well  calculated  to  suggest  the 
idea  that  a  supernatural  power,  a  wakeful  provi- 
dence, or  an  inexorable  fate,  had  linked  their  des- 
tiny together ;  and  that  no  efforts  of  his  could  dis- 
entangle him  from  the  mysterious  web  of  circum- 
stances which  enfolded  him. 

On  leaving  the  table,  Mr.  Listwell  nerved  him- 
self up  and  walked  firmly  into  the  bar-room.  He 
was  at  once  greeted  again  by  that  talkative  chat- 
ter-box, Mr.  Wilkes. 

"  Them 's  a  likely  set  of  niggers  in  the  alley 
there,"  said  Wilkes. 

•"  Yes,  they  're  fine  looking  fellows,  one  of  them 
I  should  like  to  purchase,  and  for  him  I  would  be 
-willing  to  give  a 'handsome  sum." 

Turning  to  one  of  his  comrades,  and  with  a 
grin  of  victory,  Wilkes  said,  "  Aha,  Bill,  did  you 
hear  that?  I  told  you  I  know'd  that  gentleman 
wanted  to  buy  niggers,  and  would  bid  as  high  as 
any  purchaser  in  the  market." 

"  Come,  come,"  said  Listwell,  "  don't  be  too 
loud  in  your  praise,  you  are  old  enough  to  know 
that  prices  rise  when  purchasers  are  plenty." 

"That's  a  fact,"  said  Wilkes,  "I  see  you 
knows  the  ropes  —  and  there 's  not  a  man  in  old 
Virginy  whom  I'd  rather  help  to  make  a  good 
bargain  than  you,  sir." 

"  Mr.  Listwell  here  threw  a  dollar  at  Wilkes, 
(which  the  latter  caught  with  a  dexterous  hand,) 
saying,  "  Take  that  for  your  kind  good  will." 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         223 

Wilkes  held  up  the  dollar  to  his  right  eye,  with  a 
grin  of  victory,  and  turned  to  the  morose  grumbler 
in  the  corner  who  had  questioned  the  liberality  of 
a  man  of  whom  he  knew  nothing. 

Mr.  Listwell  now  stood  as  well  with  the  com- 
pany as  any  other  occupant  of  the  bar-room. 

We  pass  over  the  hurry  and  bustle,  the  brutal 
vociferations  of  the  slave-drivers  in  getting  their 
unhappy  gang  in  motion  for  Richmond ;  and  we 
need  not  narrate  every  application  of  the  lash  to 
those  who  faltered  in  the  journey.  Mr.  Listwell 
followed  the  train  at  a  long  distance,  with  a  sad 
heart ;  and  on  reaching  Richmond,  left  his  horse 
at  a  hotel,  and  made  his  way  to  the  wharf  in  the 
direction  of  which  he  saw  the  slave-coffle  driven. 
He  was  just  in  time  to  see  the  whole  company 
embark  for  New  Orleans.  The  thought  struck 
him  that,  while  mixing  with  the  multitude,  he 
might  do  his  friend  Madison  one  last  service,  and 
he  stept  into  a  hardware  store  and  purchased  three 
strong  files.  These  he  took  with  him,  and  stand- 
ing near  the  small  boat,  which  lay  in  waiting  to 
bear  the  company  by  parcels  to  the  side  of  the 
brig  that  lay  in  the  stream,  he  managed,  as  Madi- 
son passed  him,  to  slip  the  files  into  his  pocket, 
and  at  once  darted  back  among  the  crowd. 

All  the  company  now  on  board,  the  imperious 
voice  of  the  captain  sounded,  and  instantly  a  dozen 
hardy  seamen  were  in  the  rigging,  hurrying  aloft 
to  unfurl  the  broad  canvas  of  our  Baltimore  built 
American  Slaver.  The  sailors  hung  about  the 


224         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

ropes,  like  so  many  black  cats,  now  in  the  round- 
tops,  now  in  the  cross-trees,  now  on  the  yard-arms ; 
all  was  bluster  and  activity.  Soon  the  broad  fore 
topsail,  the  royal  and  top  gallant  sail  were  spread 
to  the  breeze.  Round  went  the  heavy  windlass, 
clank,  clank  went  the  fall-bit,  —  the  anchors 
weighed, — jibs,  mainsails,  and  topsails  hauled  to 
the  wind,  and  the  long,  low,  black  slaver,  with  her 
cargo  of  human  flesh,  careened  and  moved  forward 
to  the  sea. 

Mr.  Listwell  stood  on  the  shore,  and  watched  the 
slaver  till  the  last  speck  of  her  upper  sails  faded 
from  sight,  and  announced  the  limit  of  human 
vision.  "  Farewell !  farewell !  brave  and  true  man ! 
God  grant  that  brighter  skies  may  smile  upon 
your  future  than  have  yet  looked  down  upon 
your  thorny  pathway." 

Saying  this  to  himself,  our  friend  lost  no  time 
in  completing  his  business,  and  in  making  his 
way  homewards,  gladly  shaking  off  from  his  feet 
the  dust  of  Old  Virginia. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         225 


PART  IV. 

Oh,,  where's  the  slave  so  lowly 
Condemn'd  to  chains  unholy, 
Who  could  he  burst 
His  bonds  at  first 
Would  pine  beneath  them  slowly  ? 

Moore, 

Know  ye  not 

Who  would  be  free,  themselves  must  strike  the  blow. 

Childe  Harold. 

What  a  world  of  inconsistency,  as  well  as  of 
wickedness,  is  suggested  by  the  smooth  and  glid- 
ing phrase,  AMERICAN  SLAVE  TRADE  ;  and  how 
strange  and  perverse  is  that  moral  sentiment  which 
loathes,  execrates,  and  brands  as  piracy  and  as 
deserving  of  death  the  carrying  away  into  cap- 
tivity men,  women,  and  children  from  the  African 
coast;  but  which  is  neither  shocked  nor  disturbed 
by  a  similar  traffic,  carried  on  with  the  same 
motives  and  purposes,  and  characterized  by  even 
more  odious  peculiarities  on  the  coast  of  our 
MODEL  REPUBLIC.  We  execrate  and  hang  the 
wretch  guilty  of  this  crime  on  the  coast  of  Guinea, 
while  we  respect  and  applaud  the  guilty  participa- 
tors in  this  murderous  business  on  the  enlightened 
shores  of  the  Chesapeake.  The  inconsistency 
is  so  flagrant  and  glaring,  that  it  would  seem  to 


226          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

cast  a  doubt  on  the  doctrine  of  the  innate  moral 
sense  of  mankind. 

Just  two  months  after  the  sailing  of  the  Virginia 
slave  brig,  which  the  reader  has  seen  move  off  to 
sea  so  proudly  with  her  human  cargo  for  the  New 
Orleans  market,  there  chanced  to  meet,  in  the 
Marine  Coffee-house  at  Richmond,  a  company  of 
ocean  birds,  when  the  following  conversation,  which 
throws  some  light  on  the  subsequent  history,  not 
only  of  Madison  Washington,  but  of  the  hundred 
and  thirty  human  beings  with  whom  we  last  saw 
him  chained. 

"  I  say,  shipmate,  you  had  rather  rough  weather 
on  your  late  passage  to  Orleans  ?  "  said  Jack  Wil- 
liams, a  regular  old  salt,  tauntingly,  to  a  trim, 
compact,  manly  looking  person,  who  proved  to  be 
the  first  mate  of  the  slave  brig  in  question. 

"  Foul  play,  as  well  as  foul  weather,"  replied  the 
firmly  knit  personage,  evidently  but  little  inclined 
to  enter  upon  a  subject  which  terminated  so  in- 
gloriously  to  the  captain  and  officers  of  the  Amer- 
ican slaver. 

"  Well,  betwixt  you  and  me,"  said  Williams, 
that  whole  affair  on  board  of  the  Creole  was  mis- 
erably and  disgracefully  managed.  Those  black 
rascals  got  the  upper  hand  of  ye  altogether ;  and, 
in  my  opinion,  the  whole  disaster  was  the  result 
of  ignorance  of  the  real  character  of  darkies  in  gen- 
eral. With  half  a  dozen  resolute  white  men,  (I 
say  it  not  boastingly,)  I  could  have  had  the  rascals 
in  irons  in  ten  minutes,  not  because  I  'm  so  strong, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         227 

but  I  know  how  to  manage  'em.  With  my  back 
against  the  caboose,  I  could,  myself,  have  flogged 
a  dozen  of  them ;  and  had  I  been  on  board,  by 
every  monster  of  the  deep,  every  black  devil  of  'em 
all  would  have  had  his  neck  stretched  from  the 
yard-arm.  Ye  made  a  mistake  in  yer  manner  of 
fighting  'em.  All  that  is  needed  in  dealing  with 
a  set  of  rebellious  darkies,  is  to  show  that  yer  not 
afraid  of  'em.  For  my  own  part,  I  would  not 
honor  a  dozen  niggers  by  pointing  a  gun  at  one 
on  'em,  —  a  good  stout  whip,  or  a  stiff  rope's  end, 
is  better  than  all  the  guns  at  Old  Point  to  quell  a 
nigger  insurrection.  Why,  sir,  to  take  a  gun  to  a 
nigger  is  the  best  way  you  can  select  to  tell  him 
you  are  afraid  of  him,  and  the  best  way  of  invit- 
ing his  attack." 

This  speech  made  quite  a  sensation  among  the 
company,  and  a  part  of  them  indicated  solicitude 
for  the  answer  which  might  be  made  to  it.  Our 
first  mate  replied,  "  Mr.  Williams,  all  that  you  've 
now  said  sounds  very  well  here  on  shore,  where, 
perhaps,  you  have  studied  negro  character.  I  do 
not  profess  to  understand  the  subject  as  well  as 
yourself;  but  it  strikes  me,  you  apply  the  same 
rule  in  dissimilar  cases.  It  is  quite  easy  to  talk  of 
flogging  niggers  here  on  land,  where  you  have  the 
sympathy  of  the  community,  and  the  whole  phy- 
sical force  of  the  government,  State  and  national, 
at  your  command ;  and  where,  if  a  negro  shall  lift 
his  hand  against  a  white  man,  the  whole  commu- 
nity, with  one  accord,  are  ready  to  unite  in  shoot- 


228          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

ing  him  down.  I  say,  in  such  circumstances,  it 's 
easy  to  talk  of  flogging  negroes  and  of  negro  cow- 
ardice ;  but,  sir,  I  deny  that  the  negro  is,  naturally, 
a  coward,  or  that  your  theory  of  managing  slaves 
will  stand  the  test  of  salt  water.  It  may  do  very 
well  for  an  overseer,  a  contemptible  hireling,  to  take 
advantage  of  fears  already  in  existence,  and  which 
his  presence  has  no  power  to  inspire ;  to  swagger 
about  whip  in  hand,  and  discourse  on  the  timidity 
and  cowardice  of  negroes  ;  for  they  have  a  smooth 
sea  and  a  fair  wind.  It  is  one  thing  to  manage  a 
company  of  slaves  on  a  Virginia  plantation,  and 
quite  another  thing  to  quell  an  insurrection  on  the 
lonely  billows  of  the  Atlantic,  where  every  breeze 
speaks  of  courage  and  liberty.  For  the  negro  to 
act  cowardly  on  shore,  may  be  to  act  wisely ;  and 
I've  some  doubts  whether  you,  Mr.  Williams, 
would  find  it  very  convenient  were  you  a  slave  in 
Algiers,  to  raise  your  hand  against  the  bayonets  of 
a  whole  government." 

"By  George,  shipmate,"  said  Williams,  you're 
coming  rather  too  near.  Either  I've  fallen  very 
low  in  your  estimation,  or  your  notions  of  negro 
courage  have  got  up  a  button-hole  too  high.  Now 
I  more  than  ever  wish  I'd  been  on  board  of  that 
luckless  craft.  I'd  have  given  ye  practical  evidence 
of  the  truth  of  my  theory.  I  don't  doubt  there  's 
some  difference  in  being  at  sea.  But  a  nigger's  a 
nigger,  on  sea  or  land ;  and  is  a  coward,  find  him 
where  you  will ;  a  drop  of  blood  from  one  on  'em 
will  skeer  a  hundred.  A  knock  on  the  nose,  or  a 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         229 

kick  on  the  shin,  will  tame  the  wildest  c  darkey ' 
you  can  fetch  me.  I  say  again,  and  will  stand  by 
it,  I  could,  with  half  a  dozen  good  men,  put  the 
whole  nineteen  on  'em  in  irons,  and  have  carried 
them  safe  to  New  Orleans  too.  Mind,  I  don't 
blame  you,  but  I  do  say,  and  every  gentleman  here 
will  bear  me  out  in  it,  that  the  fault  was  some- 
where, or  them  niggers  would  never  have  got  off  as 
they  have  done.  For  my  part  I  feel  ashamed  to 
have  the  idea  go  abroad,  that  a  ship  load  of  slaves 
can't  be  safely  taken  from  Richmond  to  New 
Orleans.  I  should  like,  merely  to  redeem  the 
character  of  Virginia  sailors,  to  take  charge  of  a 
ship  load  on  'em  to-morrow." 

Williams  went  on  in  this  strain,  occasionally 
casting  an  imploring  glance  at  the  company  for 
apj)lause  for  his  wit,  and  sympathy  for  his  con-- 
tempt  of  negro  courage.  He  had,  evidently,  how- 
ever, waked  up  the  wrong  passenger ;  for  besides 
being  in  the  right,  his  opponent  carried  that  in  his- 
eye  which  marked  him  a  man  not  to  be  trifled  with. 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  the  sturdy  mate,  "  you  can 
select  your  own  method  for  distinguishing  your- 
self;—  the  path  of  ambition  in  this  direction  is 
quite  open  to  you  in  Virginia,  and  I  've  no  doubt 
that  you  will  be  highly  appreciated  and  compen- 
sated for  all  your  valiant  achievements  in  that  line ; 
but  for  myself,  while  I  do  not  profess  to  be  a  giant, 
I  have  resolved  never  to  set  my  foot  on  the  deck^of 
a  slave  ship,  either  as  officer,  or  common  sailor 
again ;  I  have  got  enough  of  it." 
20 


230         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

"  Indeed !  indeed !  "  exclaimed  Williams,  de 
risively. 

"Yes,  indeed"  echoed  the  mate;  "but  don't 
misunderstand  me.  It  is  not  the  high  value  that 
I  set  upon  my  life  that  makes  me  say  what  I  have 
said  ;  yet  I  'm  resolved  never  to  endanger  my  life 
again  in  a  cause  which  my  conscience  does  not 
approve.  I  dare  say  here  what  many  men  feel, 
but  dare  not  speak,  that  this  whole  slave-trading 
business  is  a  disgrace  and  scandal  to  Old  Virginia." 

"Hold!  hold  on!  shipmate,"  said  Williams, 
"  I  hardly  thought  you  'd  have  shown  your  colors 
so  soon,  —  I'll  be  hanged  if  you're  not  as  good  an 
abolitionist  as  Garrison  himself." 

The  mate  now  rose  from  his  chair,  manifesting 
some  excitement.  "  What  do  you  mean,  sir," 
said  he,  in  a  commanding  tone.  "  That  man  does 
not  live  who  shall  offer  me  an  insult  with  impunity" 

The  effect  of  these  words  was  marked ;  and  the 
company  clustered  around.  Williams,  in  an  apolo- 
getic tone,  said,  "  Shipmate !  keep  your  temper. 
I  mean't  no  insult.  We  all  know  that  Tom  Grant 
is  no  coward,  and  what  I  said  about  your  being  an 
abolitionist  was  simply  this  :  you  might  have  put 
down  them  black  mutineers  and  murderers,  but 
your  conscience  held  you  back." 

"  In  that,  too,"  said  Grant,  "  you  were  mistaken. 
I  did  all  that  any  man  with  equal  strength  and 
presence  of  mind  could  have  done.  The  fact  is, 
Mr.  Williams,  you  underrate  the  courage  as  well 
as  the  skill  of  these  negroes,  and  further,  you  do 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         231 

not  seem  to  have  been  correctly  informed  about 
the  case  in  hand  at  all." 

"  All  I  know  about  it  is,"  said  Williams,"  that  on 
the  ninth  day  after  you  left  Richmond,  a  dozen  or 
two  of  the  niggers  ye  had  on  board,  came  on  deck 
and  took  the  ship  from  you;  —  had  her  steered 
into  a  British  port,  where,  by  the  by,  every  woolly 
head  of  them  went  ashore  and  was  free.  Now  I 
take  this  to  be  a  discreditable  piece  of  business, 
and  one  demanding  explanation." 

"  There  are  a  great  many  discreditable  things  in 
the  world,"  said  Grant.  For  a  ship  to  go  down 
under  a  calm  sky  is,  upon  the  first  flush  of  it,  dis- 
graceful either  to  sailors  or  caulkers.  But  when 
we  learn,  that  by  some  mysterious  disturbance  in 
nature,  the  waters  parted  beneath,  and  swallowed 
the  ship  up,  we  lose  our  indignation  and  disgust 
in  lamentation  of  the  disaster,  and  in  awe  of  the 
Power  which  controls  the  elements." 

"  Very  true,  very  true,"  said  Williams,  "  I  should 
be  very  glad  to  have  an  explanation  which  would 
relieve  the  affair  of  its  present  discreditable  fea- 
tures. I  have  desired  to  see  you  ever  since  you 
got  home,  and  to  learn  from  you  a  full  statement 
of  the  facts  in  the  case.  To  me  the  whole  thing 
seems  unaccountable.  I  cannot  see  how  a  dozen 
or  two  of  ignorant  negroes,  not  one  of  whom  had 
ever  been  to  sea  before,  and  all  of  them  were 
closely  ironed  between  decks,  should  be  able  to 
get  their  fetters  off,  rush  out  of  the  hatchway  in 
open  daylight,  kill  two  white  men,  the  one  the 


232          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

captain  and  the  other  their  master,  and  then  car- 
ry the  ship  into  a  British  port,  where  every 
1  darkey '  of  them  was  set  free.  There  must  have 
Jbeen  great  carelessness,  or  cowardice  somewhere ! " 

The  company  which  had  listened  in  silence 
during  most  of  this  discussion,  now  became  much 
'  excited.  One  said,  I  agree  with  Williams ;  and 
several  said- the  thing  looks  black  enough.  After 
the  temporary  tumultous  exclamations  had  sub- 
sided, — 

"  I  see,"  said  Grant,  "  how  you  regard  this  case, 
and  how  difficult  it  will  be  for  me  to  render  our 
ship's  company  blameless  in  your  eyes.  Never- 
theless, I  will  state  the  fact  precisely  as  they  came 
.under  my  own  observation.  Mr.  Williams  speaks 
<of  *  ignorant  negroes,'  and,  as  a  general  rule,  they 
are  ignorant ;  but  had  he  been  on  board  the  Cre- 
ole as  I  was,  he  would  have  seen  cause  to  admit 
that  there  are  exceptions  to  this  general  rule.  The 
leader  of  the  mutiny  in  question  was  just  as 
shrewd  a  fellow  as  ever  I  met  in  my  life,  and  was 
as  well  fitted  to  lead  in  a  dangerous  enterprise  as 
any  one  white  man  in  ten  thousand.  The  name 
of  this  man,  strange  to  say,  (ominous  of  great- 
ness,) was  MADISON  WASHINGTON.  In  the  short 
time  he  had  been  on  board,  he  had  secured  the 
-confidence  of  every  officer.  The  negroes  fairly 
worshipped  him.  His  manner  and  bearing  were 
such,  that  no  one  could  suspect  him  of  a  murder- 
ous purpose.  The  only  feeling  with  which  we 
regarded  him  was,  that  he  was  a  powerful,  good- 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         233 

disposed  negro.  He  seldom  spake  to  any  one, 
and  when  he  did  speak,  it  was  with  the  utmost 
propriety.  His  words  were  well  chosen,  and  his 
pronunciation  equal  to  that  of  any  schoolmaster. 
It  was  a  mystery  to  us  where  he  got  his  knowl- 
edge of  language ;  but  as  little  was  said  to  him, 
none  of  us  knew  the  extent  of  his  intelligence 
and  ability  till  it  was  too  late.  It  seems  he 
brought  three  files  with  him  on  board,  and  must 
have  gone  to  work  upon  his  fetters  the  first  night 
out ;  and  he  must  have  worked  well  at  that ;  for  on 
the  day  of  the  rising,  he  got  the  irons  off  eighteen 
besides  himself. 

"  The  attack  began  just  about  twilight  in  the 
evening.  Apprehending  a  squall,  I  had  com- 
manded the  second  mate  to  order  all  hands  on 
deck,  to  take  in  sail.  A  few  minutes  before  this 
I  had  seen  Madison's  head  above  the  hatchway, 
looking  out  upon  the  white-capped  waves  at  the 
leeward.  I  think  I  never  saw  him  look  more 
good-natured.  I  stood  just  about  midship,  on 
the  larboard  side.  The  captain  was  pacing  the 
quarter-deck  on  the  starboard  side,  in  company 
with  Mr.  Jameson,  the  owner  of  most  of  the 
slaves  on  board.  Both  were  armed.  I  had  just 
told  the  men  to  lay  aloft,  and  was  looking  to  see 
my  orders  obeyed,  when  I  heard  the  discharge  of 
a  pistol  on  the  starboard  side ;  and  turning  sud- 
denly around,  the  very  deck  seemed  covered  with 
fiends  from  the  pit.  The  nineteen  negroes  were 
all  on  deck,  with  their  broken  fetters  in  their 
20* 


234         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

hands,  rushing  in  all  directions.  I  put  my  hand 
quickly  in  my  pocket  to  draw  out  my  jack-knife ; 
but  before  I  could  draw  it,  I  was  knocked  sense- 
less to  the  deck.  When  I  came  to  myself,  (which 
I  did  in  a  few  minutes,  I  suppose,  for  it  was  yet 
quite  light,)  there  was  not  a  white  man  on  deck. 
The  sailors  were  all  aloft  in  the  rigging,  and  dared 
•not  come  down.  Captain  Clarke  and  Mr.  Jame- 
son lay  stretched  on  the  quarter-deck,  —  both  dy- 
ing,—  while  Madison  himself  stood  at  the  helm 
unhurt. 

"  I  was  completely  weakened  by  the  loss  of  blood, 
and  had  not  recovered  from  the  stunning  blow 
which  felled  me  to  the  deck ;  but  it  was  a  little 
too  much  for  me,  even  in  my  prostrate  condition, 
to  see  our  good  brig  commanded  by  a  black  mur- 
derer. So  I  called  out  to  the  men  to  come  down 
and  take  the  ship,  or  die  in  the  attempt.  Suiting 
the  action  to  the  word,  I  started  aft.  You  mur- 
derous villain,  said  I,  to  the  imp  at  the  helm,  and 
rushed  upon  him  to  deal  him  a  blow,  when  he 
pushed  me  back  with  his  strong,  black  arm,  as 
though  I  h*ad  been  a  boy  of  twelve.  I  looked 
.around  for  the  men.  They  were  still  in  the  rig- 
ging. Not  one  had  come  down.  I  started  to- 
wards Madison  again.  The  rascal  now  told  me 
to  stand  back.  '  Sir,'  said  he,  '  your  life  is  in  my 
hands.  I  could  have  killed  you  a  dozen  times 
•over  during  this  last  half  hour,  and  could  kill  you 
now.  You  call  me  a  black  murderer.  I  am  not 
a  murderer.  God  is  my  witness  that  LIBERTY, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.        235 

not  malice,  is  the  motive  for  this  night's  work.  I 
have  done  no  more  to  those  dead  men  yonder, 
than  they  would  have  done,  to  me  in  like  circum- 
stances. We  have  struck  for  our  freedom,  and  if 
a  true  man's  heart  be  in  you,  you  will  honor  us 
for  the  deed.  We  have  done  that  which  you 
applaud  your  fathers  for  doing,  and  if  we  are  mur- 
derers, so  were  they? 

"  I  felt  little  disposition  to  reply  to  this  impu- 
dent speech.  By  heaven,  it  disarmed  me.  The 
fellow  loomed  up  before  me.  I  forgot  his  black- 
ness in  the  dignity  of  his  manner,  and  the  elo- 
quence of  his  speech.  It  seemed  as  if  the  souls 
of  both  the  great  dead  (whose  names  he  bore) 
had  entered  him.  To  the  sailors  in  the  rigging  he 
said :  '  Men  !  the  battle  is  over,  —  your  captain  is 
dead.  I  have  complete  command  of  this  vessel. 
All  resistance  to  my  authority  will  be  in  vain. 
My  men  have  won  their  liberty,  with  no  other 
weapons  but  their  own  BROKEN  FETTERS.  We  are 
nineteen  in  number.  WTe  do  not  thirst  for  your 
blood,  we  demand  only  our  rightful  freedom.  Do 
not  flatter  yourselves  that  I  am  ignorant  of  chart 
or  compass.  I  know  both.  We  are  now  only 
about  sixty  miles  from  Nassau.  Come  down, 
and  do  your  duty.  Land  us  in  Nassau,  and  not 
a  hair  of  your  heads  shall  be  hurt.' 

"  I  shouted,  Stay  where  you  are,  men,  —  when 
a  sturdy  black  fellow  ran  at  me  with  a  handspike, 
and  would  have  split  my  head  open,  but  for  the 
interference  of  Madison,  who  darted  between  me 


236          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

and  the  blow.  '  I  know  what  you  are  up  to,'  said 
the  latter  to  me.  '  You  want  to  navigate  this  brig 
into  a  slave  port,  where  you  would  have  us  all 
hanged ;  but  you  '11  miss  it ;  before  this  brig  shall 
touch  a  slave-cursed  shore  while  I  am  on  board, 
I  will  myself  put  a  match  to  the  magazine,  and 
blow  her,  and  be  blown  with  her,  into  a  thousand 
fragments.  Now  I  have  saved  your  life  twice 
within  these  last  twenty  minutes,  —  for,  when  you 
lay  helpless  on  deck,  my  men  were  about  to  kill 
you.  I  held  them  in  check.  And  if  you  now 
(seeing  I  am  your  friend  and  not  your  enemy) 
persist  in  your  resistance  to  my  authority,  I  give 
you  fair  warning,  YOU  SHALL  DIE.' 

"  Saying  this  to  me,  he  cast  a  glance  into  the 
rigging  where  the  terror-stricken  sailors  were  cling- 
ing, like  so  many  frightened  monkeys,  and  com- 
manded them  to  come  down,  in  a  tone  from  which 
there  was  no  appeal ;  for  four  men  stood  by  with 
muskets  in  hand,  rea'dy  at  the  word  of  command 
to  shoot  them  down. 

"  I  now  became  satisfied  that  resistance  was  out 
of  the  question ;  that  my  best  policy  was  to  put 
the  brig  into  Nassau,  and  secure  the  assistance  of 
the  American  consul  at  that  port.  I  felt  sure  that 
the  authorities  would  enable  us  to  secure  the  mur- 
derers, and  bring  them  to  trial. 

"  By  this  time  the  apprehended  squall  had  burst 
upon  us.  The  wind  howled  furiously,  —  the  ocean 
was  white  with  foam,  which,  on  account  of  the 
darkness,  we  could  see  only  by  the  quick  flashes  of 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         237 

lightning  that  darted  occasionally  from  the  angry 
sky.  All  was  alarm  and  confusion.  Hideous  cries 
came  up  from  the  slave  women.  Above  the  roar- 
ing billows  a  succession  of  heavy  thunder  rolled 
along,  swelling  the  terrific  din.  -Owing  to  the 
great  darkness,  and  a  sudden  shift  of  the  wind, 
we  found  ourselves  in  the  trough  of  the  sea.  When 
shipping  a  heavy  sea  over  the  starboard  bow,  the 
bodies  of  the  captain  and  Mr.  Jameson  were 
washed  overboard.  For  awhile  we  had  dearer 
interests  to  look  after  than  slave  property.  A 
more  savage  thunder-gust  never  swept  the  ocean. 
Our  brig  rolled  and  creaked  as  if  every  bolt  would 
be  started,  and  every  thread  of  oakum  would  be 
pressed  out  of  the  seams.  To  the  pumps !  to  the 
pumps !  I  cried,  but  not  a  sailor  would  quit  his 
grasp.  Fortunately  this  squall  soon  passed  over, 
or  we  must  have  been  food  for  sharks. 

"  During  all  the  storm,  Madison  stood  firmly  at 
the  helm,  —  his  keen  eye  fixed  upon  the  binnacle. 
He  was  not  indifferent  to  the  dreadful  hurricane ; 
yet  he  met  it  with  the  equanimity  of  an  old  sailor. 
He  was  silent  but  not  agitated.  The  first  words 
he  uttered  after  the  storm  had  slightly  subsided, 
were  characteristic  of  the  man.  l  Mr.  mate,  you 
cannot  write  the  bloody  laws  of  slavery  on  those 
restless  billows.  The  ocean,  if  not  the  land,  is  free.5 
I  confess,  gentlemen,  I  felt  myself  in  the  presence 
of  a  superior  man ;  one  who,  had  he  been  a  white 
man,  I  would  have  followed  willingly  and  gladly 
in  any  honorable  enterprise.  Our  difference  of 


238         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

color  was  the  only  ground  for  difference  of  action. 
It  was  not  that  his  principles  were  wrong  in  the 
abstract ;  for  they  are  the  principles  of  1776.  But 
I  could  not  bring  myself  to  recognize  their  appli- 
cation to  one  whom  I  deemed  my  inferior. 

"  But  to  my  story.  What  happened  now  is  soon 
told.  Two  hours  after  the  frightful  tempest  had 
spent  itself,  we  were  plump  at  the  wharf  in  Nassau. 
I  sent  two  of  our  men  immediately  to  our  consul 
with  a  statement  of  facts,  requesting  his  inter- 
ference in  our  behalf.  What  he  did,  or  whither 
he  did  anything,  I  don't  know ;  but,  by  order  of 
the  authorities,  a  company  of  black  soldiers  came 
on  board,  for  the  purpose,  as  they  said,  of  pro- 
tecting the  property.  These  impudent  rascals, 
when  I  called  on  them  to  assist  me  in  keeping  the 
slaves  on  board,  sheltered  themselves  adroitly 
under  their  instructions  only  to  protect  property,  — 
and  said  they  did  not  recognize  persons  as  property. 
I  told  them  that  by  the  laws  of  Virginia  and  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  the  slaves  on  board 
were  as  much  property  as  the  barrels  of  flour  in 
the  hold.  At  this  the  stupid  blockheads  showed 
their  ivory,  rolled  up  their  white  eyes  in  horror,  as 
if  the  idea  of  putting  men  on  a  footing  with  mer- 
chandise were  revolting  to  their  humanity.  When 
these  instructions  were  understood  among  the 
negroes,  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  keep  them  on 
board.  They  deliberately  gathered  up  their  bag- 
gage before  our  eyes,  and,  against  our  remon- 
strances, poured  through  the  gangway,  —  formed 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         239 

themselves  into  a  procession  on  the  wharf,  —  bid 
farewell  to  all  on  board,  and,  uttering  the  wildest 
shouts  of  exultation,  they  marched,  amidst  the 
deafening  cheers  of  a  multitude  of  sympathizing 
spectators,  under  the  triumphant  leadership  of 
their  heroic  chief  and  deliverer,  MADISON  WASH- 


240         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 


A  PLEA  FOR  FREE  SPEECH. 


Give  me  leave  to  speak  my  mind. 

As  You  Like  It. 


THE  clamorous  demand  which  certain  patriotic 
gentlemen  are  just  now  making  for  perfect  silence 
on  the  slavery  question,  strikes  a  quiet  looker-on  as 
something  very  odd.  It  might  pass  for  a  dull  sort 
of  joke,  were  it  not  that  the  means  taken  to  enforce 
it,  by  vexatious  prosecutions,  political  and  social 
proscriptions,  and  newspaper  assaults  on  private 
reputation,  are  beginning,  in  certain  quarters,  to 
assume  a  decidedly  tragic  aspect,  and  forcing  upon 
all  anti-slavery  men  the  alternative  of  peremptorily 
refusing  compliance,  or  standing  meanly  by  to  see 
others  crushed  for  advocating  their  opinions. 

The  question  has  been  extensively,  and  I  think 
very  naturally  raised,  why  these  anti-agitation  gen- 
tlemen do  not  keep  silent  themselves.  For,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  this  perilous  topic  is  the  very  one 
which  most  of  all  appears  to  occupy  their  thoughts 
too,  and  is  ever  uppermost  when  they  undertake  to 
speak  of  the  affairs  of  the  country.  They  are  in 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM*         241 

the  predicament  of  the  poor  man  in  the  Eastern 
fable,  who,  being  forbidden  on  pain  of  the  genie's 
wrath  to  utter  a  certain  cabalistic  syllable,  found, 
to  his  horror,  that  he  could  never  after  open  his 
lips  without  their  beginning  perversely  to  frame  the 
tabooed  articulation.  But  not,  as  in  his  case,  does 
fear  chain  up  their  organs.  They  speak  it  boldly 
out,  proclaim  it  "  the  corner-stone "  of  their  po- 
litical creed,  and  do  their  best  in  every  way,  by 
speeches  and  articles,  Union-safety  pamphlets  and 
National  Convention  platforms,  to  "  keep  it  before 
the  people."  And  the  object  always  is,  to  keep 
the  people  quiet!  Surely,  if  the  Union  is  not 
strong  enough  to  bear  agitations,  the  special  friends 
of  the  Union  have  chosen  a  singular  way  to  save  it. 

I  would  by  no  means  infer,  that  they  are  alto- 
gether insecure  in  their  professions  of  anxiety. 
The  truth  appears  to  be,  however,  that  in  so  far  as 
these  professions  are  not  a  sheer  pretence,  got  up< 
by  political  men  for  political  effect,  our  estimable 
fellow  citizens  have,  all  unwittingly,  been  obeying 
a  higher  law  than  that  which  they  would  impose 
on  their  neighbors,  —  a  law,  written  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  free  soul.  On  this,  the  subject  of  the 
age,  they  must  think,  and  cannot  refrain  from 
uttering  their  thoughts.  "  They  believe,  and  there- 
fore have  they  spoken."  And  it  is  a  sufficient 
reply  to  their  unanswerable  demand  for  silence  on 
the  other  side.  "  We  also  believe,  and  therefore 
speak."  Pray,  why  not  ? 

A  certain  ardent  conservative  friend  of  mine,  to- 
21 


242          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

whom  I  once  proposed  this  inquiry,  made  a  short 
answer  to  it  after  this  fashion :  —  "  The  abolition- 
ists are  all  fools  and  fanatics.  Whenever  the  idea 
of  anti-slavery  gets  hold  of  a  man,  he  takes  leave 
of  his  common  sense,  and  is  thenceforth  as  one 
possessed.  I  would  put  a  padlock  on  every  such 
crazy  fellow's  mouth."  My  friend's  rule,  it  will  be 
seen,  is  a  very  broad  one ;  stopping  the  mouths  of 
all  who  speak  foolishly.  Who  will  undertake  to 
see  it  fairly  applied  ?  or  who  could  feel  quite  free 
from  nervousness  in  view  of  its  possible  operation  ? 
Under  an  infallible  administration,  I  apprehend, 
many  —  some,  perhaps,  even  of  the  most  strenuous 
advocates  of  the  law — might  find  themselves 
uncomfortably  implicated,  who  at  present  hardly 
suspect  the  danger.  "  By'rlakin,  a  parlous  fear !  my 
masters,  you  ought  to  consider  with  yourselves !"  I 
am  constrained  to  confess,  that  in  the  very  midst 
of  my  friend's  aforesaid  patriotic  diatribe  against 
folly  and  fanaticism,  and  his  plea  for  a  summary 
fool-act,  I  could  not  keep  out  of  my  mind  some 
wicked  recollections  of  Horace's  lines : 

Communi  sensu  plane  caret,  inquimus.     Eheu ! 
Quam  temere  in  nosmet  legem  sancimus  iniquam  ! 

It  must  in  all  candor  be  confessed,  that  there  is 
something  in  the  subject  of  slavery  which,  when 
fairly  looked  at  and  realized,  is  a  little  trying  to 
one's  sanity.  Even  such  intellects  as  John  Wes- 
ley's and  Thomas  Jefferson's,  seem  to  stagger  a 
little  under  a  view  of  the  appalling  sum  of  iniquity 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         243 

and  wretchedness  which  the  word  represents,  and 
vent  their  excitement  in  terms  not  particularly 
measured.  What  wonder,  then,  if  men  of  simpler 
minds  should  now  and  then  be  thrown  quite  off 
the  balance,  and  think  and  say  some  things  that 
are  really  unwise.  I  think,  indeed,  it  will  have  to 
be  confessed,  that  we  have  had  fools  and  fanatics 
on  both  sides  of  the  slavery  question ;  and  it  is 
altogether  among  the  probabilities,  that  such  will 
continue  to  be  the  case  hereafter.  Still,  until  we 
have  some  infallible  criterion  to  distinguish  actual 
folly  from  that  which  foolish  people  merely  think 
such,  I  fancy  we  must  forego  the  convenience  of 
my  friend's  summary  process,  and,  giving  leave  to 
every  man  to  speak  his  mind,  leave  it  to  Time  — 
great  sifter  of  men  and  opinions  —  to  separate 
between  the  precious  and  the  vile. 

It  may  be  the  kindness  bred  of  a  fellow  feeling, 
but  I  must  confess  to  a  warm  side  towards  my 
brethren  of  the  motley  tribe.  While  on  the  one 
hand  I  firmly  hold  >vlth  Elihu  —  who  seems  to 
have  represented  young  Uz  among  the  friends  of 
Job  —  that  "  great  men  are  not  always  wise."  I 
rejoice  on  the  other  hand  in  the  concession  of 
Polonius,  —  chief  old  Fogy  of  the  court  of  Den- 
mark, —  that  there  is  "  a  happiness  which  madness 
often  hits  on,  that  reason  and  sanity  could  not  so 
prosperously  be  delivered  of."  Folly  and  craziness, 
quotha !  Did  it,  then,  never  occur  to  you,  O  World- 
ly Wiseman,  that  even  your  wisdom  might  be  bet- 
tered by  a  dash  of  that  which  you  thus  contemp- 


"244  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 

tuously  brand  ?  Or  does  the  apostle  seem  to  you 
as  one  that  driveleth,  when  he  says,  "  If  any  man 
;  among  you  seemeth  to  be  wise  in  this  world,  let 
."him  become  a  fool,  that  he  may  be  wise  ?  " 

I  have  often  admired  the  sagacity  of  our  mediae- 
val forefathers,  in  the  treatment  of  their  (so  called) 
fools.  They  gave  them  a  special  license  of  the 
tongue ;  for  they  justly  estimated  the  advantages 
which  the  truly  wise  know  how  to  draw  from  the 
untrammelled  utterancess  of  any  honest  mind, 
>  especially  of  minds  which,  refusing  to  run  tamely 
in  the  oiled  grooves  of  prescriptive  and  fashiona- 
ble orthodoxy,  are  the  more  likely,  now  and  then, 
<(were  it  only  by  accident,)  to  hit  upon  truths  of 
which  others  miss.  Hence  they  maintained  an 
"Independent  Order"  of  the  motley,  whose  only 
business  it  was  freely  to  think  and  freely  speak 
their  minds.  "  I  must  have  liberty  withal,"  says 
.  Jaques,  aspiring  to  this  dignity. 

—  "  as  free  a  charter  as  the  wind, 
To  blow  on  whom  I  please  :  for  so  fools  have." 

And  he  adds,  in  a  strain  of  admonition  which 
certain  contemporaneous  events  might  almost  lead 
«one  to  consider  prophetic, 

"  they  that  are  most  galled  with  my  folly, 

They  most  must  laugh.     And  why,  sir,  must  they  so  ? 

The  why  is  plain  as  way  to  parish  church. 

He  that  a  fool  doth  very  wisely  hit, 

Doth  very  foolishly,  although  he  smart, 

Not  to  seem  senseless  of  the  hob.    If  not, 

The  wise  man's  folly  is  anatomised 

•Even  by  the  squandering  glances  of  the  fool. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         245 

*    *    What  then  ?    Let  me  see  wherein 
My  speech  hath  wronged  him.     If  it  do  him  right, 
Then  he  hath  wronged  himself;  if  he  be  free, 
Why  then,  my  taxing  like  a  wild  goose  flies, 
Unclaimed  of  any  man." 

/  \ 

Now  if  there  be  "  fools  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury," as  I  devoutly  hope  there  be,  —  men  possessed 
with  the  belief  of  a  Higher  Law,  Inalienable  Bights, 
Supremacy  of  Conscience,  and  such  like  obsolete 
phantoms,  and  passing  strange  judgments  on  the 
deeds  of  men  and  nations  in  the  light  thereof,  — 
I  beg  to  put  in  a  similar  plea  for  them.  Give, 
them  leave  to  speak  their  minds.  Now  and  then,  it 
may  be  worth  the  pondering,  and,  heeded  betimes, 
may  peradventure  save  from  calamity  and  ruin. 
If  not,  an  attempt  to  enforce  silence  on  fools  — 
and  is  it  not  much  the  same  with  freemen  ?  —  is 
likely  to  produce,  not  silence  at  all,  but  a  greater 
outcry.  And  as  for  our  great  men  and  wise  men, 
when  hit,  let  them  conceal  the  smart,  and  profit  by 
the  lesson.  But,  for  their  own  greatness'  sake,  and 
the  honor  of  their  wisdom,  whither  hit  or  not,  let 
them  never  fall  into  a  passion  at  the  freedom  of 
men's  speech,  and  cry,  TJiis  must  be  put  down.  For 
it  will  not  down  at  their  bidding. 

But  the  subject  refuses  to  be  treated  lightly. 
The  vast  interests  at  stake  on  both  sides,  and  the 
immediate  urgency  of  the  crisis,  compel  the  mind 
to  sobriety  and  solicitude  in  the  contemplation  of 
it.  No  truly  wise  man  will  look  upon  the  anti- 
slavery  doctrine  as  mere  folly,  or  on  the  promulga- 
21* 


246  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

tion  of  it  as  idle  breath.  It  is  the  measureless 
power  of  that  sentiment  —  and  all  its  power  lies 
in  its  truth — that  wakens  this  alarm;  and  it  is 
the  consciousness  of  holding  such  a  weapon  in 
their  hands,  that  makes  the  anti-slavery  masses  at 
the  North  pause,  lest  in  attempting  to  use  it  for 
good,  they  should,  unwittingly,  do  harm.  For  such 
a  sentiment,  who  can  fail  to  feel  respect?  Who 
would  not  despise  himself  if  his  own  bosom  were 
destitute  of  it  ?  But,  by  as  much  as  I  respect  it 
in  others,  and  would  cherish  it  in  myself,  by  so 
much  will  I  resent  all  playing  upon  it  by  political 
:men  for  party  or  personal  ends,  and  fear  lest  it  be- 
tray me  into  pusillanimity  and  inertness  where  the 
times  demand  action  for  humanity  and  God.  It 
is  a  serious  question  for  all  honest  anti-slavery 
men  throughout  the  land,  in  what  way  they  can 
most  wisely  and  hopefully  quit  them  of  their  re- 
sponsibility in  relation  to  this  thing.  Their  action 
as  citizens  should,  unquestionably,  be  restricted 
by  the  just  limits  of  their  civil  responsibility;  as 
men  by  those  of  their  moral  responsibility.  Even 
within  those  limits,  they  should  act  with  a  wise 
moderation,  and  in  a  generous  spirit  of  candor  and 
kindness.  But  one  thing  is  abundantly  certain, 
that  by  ignoring  the  responsibility,  they  do  not  get 
rid  of  it ;  by  turning  their  backs  on  the  obligation, 
they  will  not  get  it  discharged.  Still  the  terrible 
fact  remains.  Stilly  the  tears  and  blood  of  the  en- 
slaved are  daily  dropping  on  our  country's  soil. 
Throw  over  it  what  veil  of  extenuation  and  excuse 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         247 

you  may,  the  essential  crime  and  shame  remains. 
Believe  as  kindly  as  you  can  of  the  treatment 
which  the  slaves  receive  of  humane  and  Christian 
masters ;  it  is  only  on  condition  that  they  first  sur- 
render their  every  right  as  men.  Let  them  dare 
demur  to  that,  and  their  tears  and  blood  must  an- 
swer it.  That  is  the  terrible  fact ;  and  our  coun- 
try is  the  abettor,  the  protector,  and  the  agent  of 
the  iniquity.  Must  we  be  indifferent  ?  May  we 
be  indifferent?  It  is  a  question  of  tremendous 
import  to  every  freeman  in  the  land,  who  honestly 
believes  that  the  rights  he  claims  as  a  man  are 
common  to  the  race. 

We  used  to  be  told,  and  are  sometimes  still, 
that  this  is  a  matter  which  belongs  to  our  Southern 
brethren  exclusively,  and  that  when  we  of  the  free 
States  interfere  with  it,  we  meddle  with  that  which 
is  "  none  of  our  business."  And  there  was  a  time, 
when  this  might  be  urged  with  a  show  of  con- 
sistency. It  was  when  slavery  claimed  only  to  be 
a  creature  of  State  legislation,  and  asked  only  of 
the  national  government  and  the  free  States  to  be 
let  alone.  Even  then,  it  had  no  right  of  exemp- 
tion from  the  rational  scrutiny  to  which  all  human 
institutions  are  amenable,  nor  from  the  rebuke  and 
denouncement  which  all  men  may,  in  Heaven's 
name,  utter  against  all  iniquity  done  in  the  face  of 
Heaven.  But  the  special  right  of  republican  citi- 
zens to  demand  the  correction  of  wrongs  done  by 
their  own  government,  attached  in  the  matter  of 
slavery  only  to  the  citizens  of  the  slave  States. 


248        AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

But  a  wonderful  change  has  been  passing  before 
our  eyes.  The  attitude  of  slavery  is  entirely 
altered.  It  now  claims  to  be  nationalized.  It 
demands  a  distinct  recognition  and  active  protec- 
tion from  the  general  government,  and  indirect,  but 
most  effectual  support  from  every  State  in  the 
Union,  and  from  every  citizen  thereof!  The  gov- 
ernment has  acknowledged  the  validity  of  the 
claim;  and  our  great  political  leaders — some  on 
whom  we  have  been  wont  to  rely  as  stalwart 
champions  of  freedom  —  have  turned  short  round 
in  their  tracks,  and  require  us  to  believe  that  we 
are  under  constitutional  obligations  to  help  maintain 
the  accursed  thing,  —  yea,  through  all  future  time, 
to  do  its  most  menial  work !  Nor  is  the  doctrine 
to  be  left  in  the  dubious  region  of  speculation.  It 
is  already  "  a  fixed  fact,"  terribly  embodied  in  a 
penal  law.  It  enters  the  home  of  every  Northern 
freeman,  and  announces  in  thunder-tones  this 
ancestral  obligation,  which  had  so  strangely  faded 
from  the  recollections  of  men.  It  tolerates  no 
dulness  of  apprehension,  no  hesitancy  of  belief. 
It  bids  us  all,  on  pain  of  imprisonments  and  fines, 
to  conquer  our  prejudices,  to  swallow  our  scruples, 
to  be  still  with  our  nonsensical  humanities,  and, 
"  as  good  citizens,"  to  start  out  at  the  whistle  of  a 
United  States'  constable,  to  chase  down  miserable 
negroes  fleeing  from  the  hell  of  bondage ! 

Slavery,  then,  has  become  our  business  at  last ; 
and,  as  such,  does  it  not  behoove  us  to  attend  to 
it  ?  I  think,  in  the  language  of  honest  Dogberry, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         249 

that  "  that  is  proved  already,  and  will  go  near  to 
be  thought  so  shortly."  The  thing  lies  in  a  nut- 
shell. Millard  Fillmore  is  not  our  master,  but  our 
servant.  It  is  not  his  to  prescribe  duties,  but  ours ; 
and  his,  to  perform  them.  What  he  does,  in  his 
own  person  and  by  his  subordinate  executive 
officers,  he  does  for  us,  and  on 'our  responsibility. 
What  he  does  or  they  do,  in  other  words,  WE  do ; 
and  we  must  abide  the  reckoning.  In  this  respon- 
sibility, the  humblest  citizen  bears  his  share,  and 
cannot  shirk  it  if  he  would.  When,  then,  I  see  the 
ministers  of  my  country's  law  consigning  men 
with  flesh  and  blood  like  my  own,  with  homes  and 
business,  with  wives  and  children, 

As  dear  to  them,  as  are  the  ruddy  drops 
That  visit  their  sad  hearts, 

men  unaccused  of  crime,  and  eating  the  daily  bread 
of  honest  labor  —  consigning  them,  I  say,  and  their 
posterity  to  hopeless  vassalage,  and  degrading 
chattelhood,  by  a  process,  too,  which  tramples 
under  foot  the  most  ancient  and  sacred  guarantees 
of  my  own  and  my  neighbors'  rights.  When  I  see 
this  great  nation  lay  its  terrible  grasp  upon  the 
throat  of  a  feeble,  unoffending  man,  and  thrust 
him  back  to  worse  than  a  felon's  fate  for  doing 
that  which  no  casuistry  can  torture  into  a  crime,  I 
am  compelled  to  feel  that  it  is  myself  engaged  in 
this  atrocious  business;  and  no  one  but  myself 
can  rid  me  of  the  responsibility.  I  can  no  longer 
be  silent;  I  dare  no  longer  be  silent;  I  will  no 


250  „       AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

longer  be  silent.  I  will  remonstrate  and  cry, 
shame !  I  will  refuse  to  obey  the  law ;  I  will  de- 
mand to  be  released,  and  to  have  my  country 
released,  from  its  odious  requirements.  I  will 
vote,  and  influence  voters,  and  use  every  preroga- 
tive of  freedom,  to  throw  at  least  from  off  my  con- 
science a  burden  that  it  cannot  bear.  And  who 
that  is  worthy  to  be  free  himself,  will  blame  me  ? 
To  speak  is  no  longer  a  mere  right ;  it  has  become 
a  religious  duty. 

Let  no  man  tell  me,  that  this  law  is  a  mere 
dead  letter.  The  old  Fugitive  Law  had,  indeed, 
become  so  ;  and  so  would  any  other  be  likely  to 
become,  which,  while  grasping  after  the  slave, 
should  pay  a  decent  respect  to  the  rights  of  the 
free.  But  slavery  cannot  subsist  on  any  such  con- 
dition ;  and  this  law  was  framed  to  supply  the 
deficiencies  of  the  old  law,  and  to  accomplish  the 
thing.  It  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  is  bound  to  effect 
the  rendition  of  fugitives,  if  possible  at  all,  at  what- 
ever cost.  And,  if  this  law  is  insufficient,  the 
assumption  is  equally  good  for  still  more  stringent 
measures.  But  I  repeat  it,  let  no  man  tell  me  it 
is  now  a  nullity.  Have  we  not  seen  it  executed 
in  our  streets,  and  at  our  very  doors  ?  I  chanced 
to  be  in  the  city  of  New  York  at  the  time  when,  I 
think,  its  first  victim,  Henry  Long,  was  torn  from 
his  family,  and  from  a  reputable  and  profitable 
business,  and  sent  back,  —  limbs,  and  brain,  and 
throbbing,  loving  heart,  —  the  husband,  father, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         251 

friend,  the  peaceful  and  industrious  member  of 
society,  —  all,  to  be  the  property  of  a  fellow-mortal 
in  a  hostile  land.  Could  I  look  upon  this  crimeless 
man,  thus  in  the  grasp  of  the  officers  of  my  coun- 
try's laws,  my  own  representatives,  and  hurried 
unresisting  to  that  dreadful  doom ;  and  ever  be 
able  to  believe  the  law  innocuous,  and  myself 
guiltless  while  I  acquiesced  in  silence  ?  The  rabble 
followed  him  along  the  streets,  shouting  in  exulta- 
tion at  the  negro's  fate.  Them  I  must  acknowledge 
as  my  fellows  and  brethren,  but  him  —  on  him  I 
must  put  my  heel,  with  theirs,  to  crush  him  out 
of  manhood !  And  the  morrow's  papers,  edited 
by  professed  Christians,  heralded  the  occurrence, 
with  not  even  a  decent  pretence  of  pity  and 
regret,  but  as  a  triumph  of  LAW,  (O  sacred  name 
profaned!)  in  which  all  good  men  should  rejoice. 
That  day  I  felt  a  stifling  sensation  settling  down 
upon  me,  of  which  my  previous  experience  had 
afforded  no  precedent,  and  with  an  oppressive 
weight  which  no  language  can  describe.  I  felt  that 
I  no  longer  breathed  the  air  of  liberty ;  that  slavery 
was  spreading  her  Upas  branches  athwart  my  sky 
also.  The  convenient  apology  that  the  sin  was  not 
mine,  but  another's,  no  longer  stood  me  in  stead ; 
and  I  have,  wondered  ever  since  to  hear  any  hon- 
est Northern  man  employ  it.  There  are  Northern 
men,  from  whom  nothing  could  surprise  me. 

And  what  have  we  since  witnessed  ?  The  infe- 
rior officers  of  the  law  prowling  throughout  the 
North  for  victims  on  whom  to  enforce  it.  Their 


252         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

superiors,  even  to  the  highest,  laboring  by  speeches 
and  proclamations  and  journeyings  to  and  fro  in 
the  land  (is  it  too  much  to  say  ?)  to  dragoon  the 
people  into  its  support.  The  national  treasury 
thrown  wide  open  to  meet  its  "extraordinary 
expenses."  Fanueil  Hall  hung  in  chains,  to  ensure 
its  execution.  Presidental  candidates  vicing  with 
each  other  in  expressions  of  attachment  and  fidelity 
to  it.  Able  men,  in  church  and  State,  spotted  for 
proscription  for  no  other  sin  than  hating  that  law, 
and  daring  to  declare  that  hatred.  And  to  crown 
the  whole,  the  wisdom  of  the  nation,  in  Baltimore 
Conventions  once  and  again  assembled,  pro- 
nouncing the  new  doctrines  of  constitutional 
responsibility,  with  the  law  that  embodies  it,  not 
only  a  certainty,  but  (hear  it,  O  heavens !)  a  final- 
ity !  A  new  word  in  the  political  vocabulary,  and 
verily  a  new  thing  in  the  earth !  "  Finality,"  in 
the  legislation  of  freemen !  A  finality,  that  for- 
ever precludes  reconsideration,  amendment,  or 
repeal !  When  such  things  are  said,  and  gravely 
said,  by  men  professing  to  be  American  statesmen, 
I  can  almost  imagine  the  fathers  of  my  country 
turning  painfully  in  their  graves.  And  can  it  be 
possible,  that  in  the  same  breath  with  which  men 
assume  to  roll  political  responsibilities  on  freemen, 
they  dare  require  perpetual  silence  and  unconsider- 
ing  submission  thereto  ?  Then,  what  is  it  to  be 
free? 

But  let   no   one   dream   that  these   formidable 
pronouncements  have  any  enduring  force.     It  is 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         253 

natural,  that  Southern  statesmen  should  seek,  by 
every  possible  expedient,  to  keep  out  the  flood  of 
discussion  from  a  system  which  can  so  illy  bear  it. 
And  it  is  not  strange,  that  Northern  politicians 
should,  for  temporary  purposes,  assist  them  in  the 
effort.  This  is  for  a  day;  but  the  great  tide  of 
human  thought  flows  on  forever,  and  there  is  no 
spot  from  which  it  will  be  shut  out.  I  remember 
when  the  right  of  petition  was  denied  by  our 
Southern  brethren,  in  respect  to  this  subject ;  and 
they  found  compliant  tools  enough  from  the  North 
to  work  with  for  a  season.  But  was  the  right  of 
petition  sacrificed  ?  Of  course  not.  And  is  the 
right  of  free  discussion,  the  right  to  make  and  (if 
we  please)  unmake  our  laws,  less  precious  ?  This 
subject  will  be  agitated.  This  law  will  be  recon- 
sidered ;  and,  if  it  is  not  repealed,  it  will  be  for 
the  same  reasons  that  ensures  the  continuance  of 
other  laws,  namely,  because  it  is  able  to  sustain; 
severe  and  ever  recurring  scrutiny. 

But  what  is  to  become  of  the  Union  mean- 
while ?  One  thing  is  very  certain.  If  it  delibe- 
rately place  itself  in  competition  with  those  "  bless- 
ings of  liberty,"  which  it  was  created  to  "  secure," 
it  ought  to  fall.  Shall  the  end  be  sacrificed  to 
preserve  the  means,  to  which  the  end  alone  gives 
value  ?  And  what  are  we  to  think  of  the  states- 
manship of  those,  who,  to  effect  that  preservation, 
would  force  such  an  issue  on  a  people  nursed  at 
the  breasts  of  freedom  ?  I  would  rather  die  than 
live  a  traitor  to  my  country ;  but  let  me  die  ten 
22  * 


254          AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

thousand  deaths  before  I  prove  treacherous  to  free- 
dom and  to  God.  "  If  this  be  treason,  make  the 
most  of  it." 

But  it  is  worse  than  idle  to  talk  so.  There  is  no 
such  issue  before  the  nation.  We  are  not  com- 
pelled to  choose  between  disunion  and  slavery; 
a  slavery,  too,  that  would  not  only  hold  the  black 
man  in  its  remorseless  gripe,  but  put  its  fetters  on 
the  conscience  of  the  white  man,  and  its  gag  into 
his  mouth.  Our  Southern  brethren  themselves, 
even  to  save  their  cherished  institution,  would  not 
dare,  would  not  desire  to  press  such  an  alternative. 
Were  it  so,  who  would  not  be  ready  to  surrender 
the  Union  as  valueless  to  him,  and  to  part  compa- 
ny with  Southrons  as  men  unworthy  to  ,be  free  ? 
But  it  is  not  so.  There  are  Hotspurs,  doubtless, 
enough  of  them  at  the  South ;  and  Jehus,  too 
many,  at  the  North.  And  there  are  cunning  poli- 
ticans  to  stand  between  the  two  sections,  and  play 
upon  the  prejudices  of  both,  and  into  each  other's 
hands,  for  selfish  ends.  But  the  great  heart  of  the 
nation,  North  and  South,  on  the  whole  and  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  its  understanding,  beats  true 
alike  to  freedom  and  the  constitution,  —  true  to 
that  immortal  sentiment  which,  as  long  as  this 
nation  endures,  shall  encircle  its  author's  name 
with  a  halo,  in  whose  splendor  some  later  words 
that  have  fallen  from  his  lips  will  be  happily  lost 
and  forgotten :  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  for- 
ever, one  and  inseparable."  Whatever  differences 
there  may  be  as  to  the  nature,  conditions,  and  ob- 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


255 


ligations  of  freedom,  or  as  to  the  intent  and  mean- 
ing of  the  constitution,  no  party  among  the  people 
will  refuse  to  submit  them  to  the  ordeal  of  discus- 
sion, and  the  arbitrament  of  the  appointed  tribu- 
nals. 

While  this  is  so,  let  him  be  deemed  the  traitor, 
who  stands  up  before  the  world,  and  belies  his 
country  by  declaring  it  to  be  otherwise.  And  let 
every  man  prepare  to  enter  into  those  discussions 
which  no  human  power  can  now  stave  off,  in  a 
spirit  of  intelligent  candor  and  kindness,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  of  inflexible  fidelity  to  God  and  man. 


(Xxlnrv^ryJ\ 

1     cs 


256  AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


PLACIDO. 


THE  true  wealth  and  glory  of  a  nation  consist 
not  in  its  gold  dust,  nor  in  its  commerce,  nor  in  the 
grandeur  of  its  palaces,  nor  yet  in  the  magnifi- 
cence of  its  cities,  —  but  in  the  intellectual  and  mor- 
al energy  of  its  people.  Egypt  is  more,  glorious 
because  of  her  carrying  into  Greece  the  blessings 
of  civilization,  than  because  of  her  pyramids, 
however  wondrous,  her  lakes  and  labyrinths,  how- 
ever stupendous,  or  her  Thebes,  though  every 
square  marked  a  palace,  or  every  alley  a  dome. 
Who  hears  of  the  moneyed  men  of  Athens,  of 
Rome  ?  And  who  does  not  hear  of  Socrates,  of 
Plato,  of  Demosthenes,  of  Virgil,  of  Cicero  ?  Are 
you  in  converse  with  him  of  the  "  Sea-girt  Isle," 
and  would  touch  the  chord  that  vibrates  most 
readily  in  his  heart  ?  —  then  talk  to  him  of  Shak- 
speare,  of  Milton,  of  Cowper,  of  Bacon,  of  New- 
ton; of  Burns,  of  Scott.  To  the  intelligent  son 
of  the  "Emerald  Isle,"  talk  of  Curran,  of  Em- 
mett,  of  O'Connell. 

Great  men  are  a  nation's  vitality.    Nations  pass 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         257 

away,  —  great  men,  never.  Great  men  are  not  un- 
frequently  buried  in  dungeons  or  in  obscurity; 
but  they  work  out  great  thoughts  for  all  time,  nev- 
ertheless. Did  not  Bunyan  work  out  a  great 
thought  all-vital  and  vitalizing,  when  he  lay 
twelve  years  in  Bedford  jail,  weaving  his  tagged 
lace,  and  writing  his  Pilgrim's  Progress?  The 
greatest  man  in  all  America  is  now  in  obscurity. 
It  is  he  who  is  "the  Lord  of  his  own  soul"  on 
whose  brow  wisdom  has  marked  her  supremacy, 
and  who,  in  his  sphere,  moves 

"  Stilly  as  a  star,  on  his  eternal  way." 

A  great  writer  hath  said,  "  Nature  is  stingy  of 
her  great  men."  I  do  not  believe  it.  God  doeth 
all  his  work  fitly  and  well ;  how,  therefore,  could 
he  give  us  great  men,  not  plentifully,  but  stingily  ? 
The  truth  is,  there  are  great  men,  and  they  are 
plentiful,  —  plentiful  for  the  times,  I  mean,  —  but 
we  do  not  see  them,  because  we  will  not  come 
into  the  sun-light  of  truth  and  rectitude  where, 
and  where  only,  dwelleth  greatness. 

Placido  was  a  great  man.  He  was  a  great  poet 
besides.  He  was  a  patriot,  also,  —  how  could  he 
be  otherwise  ?  Are  not  all  poets  patriots  ? 

"  Adios  Mundo,"  cried  he,  as  with  tear-bedim- 
med  eyes  he  looked  up  into  the  blue  heavens 
above  him,  and  upon  the  green  earth  beneath  him ; 
and  upon  the  portals  of  the  universer  ead  wis- 
dom, majesty,  and  power.  Was  there  no  poetry 
in  this  outburst  of  a  full  heart,  and  in  this  looking 
22* 


258         AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

upward  to  heaven?  "  Adios  Mundo,"  cried  he, 
as  now  beholding,  for  the  last  time,  the  home  of 
his  love,  —  he  bared  his  bosom  to  the  death-shot 
of  the  soldiers. 

Great  was  Placido  in  life,  —  he  was  greater 
still  in  death.  His  was  the  faith  which  fastens 
itself  upon  the  EVERLASTING  i  AM. 

Call  you  that  greatness  which  Pizarro  achieved 
when,  seizing  a  sword  and  drawing  a  line  upon 
the  sand  from  east  to  west,  he  himself  facing 
south,  he  said  to  his  band  of  pirates :  —  "  Friends, 
comrades,  on  that  side  are  toil,  hunger,  nakedness, 
.the  drenching  storm,  desertion,  and  death;  on  this 
side,  ease  and  pleasure.  There  lies  Peru  with  its 
richness ;  here  Panama  with  its  poverty.  Choose, 
each  man  what  best  becomes  a  brave  Castillian. 
For  my  part  I  go  to  the  south ; "  —  suiting  the  ac- 
tion to  the  word?  So  do  I,  —  but  look  ye,  this  is 
merely  the  greatness  of  overwhelming  energy  and 
concentrated  purpose,  not  illuminated  by  a  single 
ray  of  light  from  the  Divine.  See  here,  how  Pla- 
<cido  dwarfeth  Pizarro  when  he  thus  prayeth, 

"  God  of  unbounded  love,  and  power  eternal ! 
To  Thee  I  turn  in  darkness  and  despair ; 
Stretch  forth  Thine  arm,  and  from  the  brow  infernal 
Of  calumny  the  veil  of  justice  tear ! 

******* 

O,  King  of  kings !  —  my  father's  God !  —  who  only 
Art  strong  to  save,  by  whom  is  all  controlled,  — 

Who  giv'st  the  sea  its  waves,  the  dark  and  lonely 
Abyss  of  heaven  its  light,  the  North  its  cold, 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.        259 

The  air  its  currents,  the  warm  sun  its  beams, 
Life  to  the  flowers,  and  motion  to  the  streams  : 

All  things  obey  Thee ;  dying  or  reviving 
As  thou  commandest ;  all,  apart  from  Thee, 

From  Thee  alone  their  life  and  power  deriving, 
Sink  and  are  lost  in  vast  eternity ! 

*  #  *  *  *  * 

O,  merciful  God !  I  cannot  shun  Thy  presence, 
For  through  its  veil  of  flesh,  Thy  piercing  eye 

Looketh  upon  my  spirit's  unsoiled  essence, 
As  through  the  pure  transparence  of  the  sky ; 

Let  not  the  oppressor  clap  his  bloody  hands, 

As  o'er  my  prostrate  innocence  he  stands. 

*  '  *  *  *  *  * 

But  if,  alas,  it  seemeth  good  to  Thee 

That  I  should  perish  as  the  guilty  dies, 
Still,  fully  in  me,  Thy  will  be  done,  O  God !  " 

Placido  had  a  symmetrically  developed  char- 
acter. All  great  men  have  this.  His  intellectual 
and  moral  nature  blended  harmoniously  as 

"  Kindred  elements  into  one." 

An  ancient  philosopher  hath  said  that  the  passions 
and  the  soul  are  placed  in  the  same  body,  so  that 
the  passions  might  have  ready  opportunity  to  per- 
suade the  soul  to  become  subservient  to  their  pur- 
pose. A  terrible  conflict.  And  yet  through  it 
Placido  passed  triumphantly. 

Placido  was  born  a  slave  on  the  island  of  Cuba, 
on  the  plantation  of  Don  Terribio  De  Castro.  The 


260  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

year  of  his  birth  I  am  unable  to  give,  but  it  must 
have  been  somewhere  between  the  years  1790  and 
1800.  He  was  of  African  origin.  But  little  is 
known  of  his  earliest  days  save  that  he  was  of 
gentle  demeanor,  and  wore  an  aspect  which,  though 
mild,  indicated  the  working  of  great  thoughts 
within.  He  was  allowed  some  little  advantage  of 
education  in  his  youth,  and  he  evinced  great 
poetic  genius.  The  prayer  just  quoted  was  com- 
posed by  him  while  he  lay  in  prison,  and  repeated 
on  his  way  from  his  dungeon  to  his  place  of 
execution. 

The  Heraldo,  a  leading  journal  of  Havana,  thus 
spoke  of  him  after  his  arrest :  — 

"  Placido  is  a  celebrated  poet,  —  a  man  of  great 
genius,  but  too  wild  and  ambitious.  His  object 
was  to  subdue  Cuba,  and  make  himself  the  chief." 

The  following  lines,  also,  were  found  inscribed 
upon  the  walls  of  his  dungeon.  They  were  writ- 
ten on  the  day  previous  to  his  execution. 

"  O  Liberty  !  I  wait  for  thee, 

To  break  this  chain,  and  dungeon  bar ; 
I  hear  thy  voice  calling  me, 

Deep  in  the  frozen  North,  afar, 
With  voice  like  God's,  and  vision  like  a  star. 

Long  cradled  in  the  mountain  wind, 

Thy  mates,  the  eagle  and  the  storm : 
Arise ;  and  from  thy  brow  unbind 

The  wreath  that  gives  its  starry  form, 
And  smite  the  strength,  that  would  thy  strength  deform. 


AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM.         261 

Yet  Liberty !  thy  dawning  light, 

Obscured  by  dungeon  bars,  shall  cast 
A  splendor  on  the  breaking  night, 

And  tyrants,  flying  thick  and  fast, 
Shall  tremble  at  thy  gaze,  and  stand  aghast." 

In  poetic  feeling,  patriotic  spirit,  living  faith, 
and,  withal  in  literary  beauty,  these  lines  are  not 
surpassed ;  and  they  cannot  fail  to  rank  Placido 
not  only  with  the  great-hearted,  hut  with  the  gifted 
men  of  the  earth.  A  tribute  to  his  genius  is 
recorded  in  the  fact,  that  he  was  ransomed  from 
slavery  by  the  contributions  of  slave-holders  of 
Cuba. 

Placido  was  executed  on  the  7th  of  July,  1844. 
On  the  first  fire  of  the  soldiers,  no  ball  entered  his 
heart.  He  looked  up,  but  with  no  spirit  of 
revenge,  no  aspect  of  defiance,  —  only  sat  upon  his 
countenance  the  desire  to  pass  at  once  into  the 
region  where  no  death  is. 

"  Pity  me,"  said  he,  "  and  fire  here,"  —  putting 
his  hand  upon  his  heart.  Two  balls  then  entered 
his  body,  and  Placido  fell. 

As  Wordsworth  said  of  Touissant,  so  may  it  be 
said  of  Placido,  — 

"  Thou  hast  left  behind  thee 

Powers  that  will  work  for  thee ;  air,  earth,  and  skies. 
There's  not  a  breathing  of  the  common  wind 
That  will  forget  thee  ;  thou  hast  great  allies, 
Thy  friends  are  exultations,  agonies, 
And  love,  and  man's  unconquerable  mind." 


262  AUTOGRAPHS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

The  charge  against  Placido  was,  that  he  was 
at  the  head  of  a  conspiracy  to  overthrow  slavery  in 
his  native  island.  Blessings  on  thee,  Placido! 
Nor  didst  thou  fail  of  thy  mission.  Did  the 
martyrs,  stake-bound,  fail  of  theirs  ?  As  the  Lord 
liveth,  Cuba  shall  yet  be  free. 

That  Placido  was  at  the  head  of  this  conspiracy 
there  is  not  a  doubt ;  but  what  his  plans  in  detail 
were,  I  know  not ;  the  means  of  acquiring  them  are 
not  within  my  reach.  Nevertheless,  from  the  treat- 
ment throughout  of  the  Cuban  authorities  towards 
Placido,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  Placido' s  plan 
in  detail  evinced  no  lack  of  ability  to  originate  and 
execute,  nor  of  that  sagacity  which  should  mark  a 
revolutionary  leader.  Placido  hated  slavery  with  a 
hatred  intensified  by  the  remembrance  of  wrongs 
which  a  loving  and  loved  mother  had  borne.  The 
iron,  too,  had  entered  into  his  own  soul ;  and  he 
had  been  a  daily  witness  of  scenes  such  as  tor- 
ment itself  could  scarcely  equal,  nor  the  pit  itself 
outdo.  Call  you  this  extravagance  ?  You  will 
not,  —  should  you  but  study  a  single  chapter  in 
the  history  of  Cuban  slavery. 

Do  you  honor  Kossuth  ?  —  then  forget  not  him 
who  is  worthy  to  stand  side  by  side  with  Hun- 
gary's illustrious  son. 

What  may  be  the  destiny  of  Cuba  in  the  future 
near  at  hand,  I  will  not  venture  to  predict.  What 
may  be  her  ultimate  destiny  is  written  in  the  fact 
that,  — "  God  hath  no  attribute  which,  in  a  con- 


AUTOGRAPHS    FOR    FREEDOM. 


263 


test  between  the  oppressed  and  the  oppressor,  can 
take  sides  with  the  latter." 

This  sketch,  though  hastily  written,  and  meagre 
in  detail  as  it  must  necessarily  be,  will  show,  at 
least,  by  the  quotations  of  poetry  introduced,  that 
God  hath  not  given  to  one  race  alone,  all  intellec- 
tual and  moral  greatness. 


0  • 


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